The Board of Immigration Appeals has dismissed the appeal of a Guatemalan respondent found ineligible for cancellation of removal after he paid a smuggler to transport his 14-year-old son from Guatemala to the U.S.-Mexico border to reunite the family, even though the son ultimately sought asylum after arrival.
The Board held that the alien-smuggling ground of inadmissibility applies to assisting an alien "to enter or to try to enter" the United States regardless of whether the smuggled person is later admitted or applies for asylum, and that the respondent's unsupported claim he intended only lawful entry did not overcome evidence that his son had no lawful basis to enter and was taken through the desert. The Board held this triggered the statutory bar to good moral character, making the respondent ineligible for cancellation of removal.
The full text of Matter of L-L-R- can be found here: https://www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1455106/dl?inline