Oscar Rene Perdomo Ulloa, a Honduran citizen who entered the U.S. without authorization in 2000, was convicted in 2012 of a Class 1 misdemeanor in Virginia for using another person's identity to obtain money with intent to defraud. He received a suspended 30-day jail sentence, though the offense carried a maximum penalty of 12 months. After the Department of Homeland Security initiated removal proceedings, Perdomo Ulloa sought cancellation of removal but was denied due to his criminal conviction.
Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, writing for the unanimous three-judge panel, rejected Perdomo Ulloa's argument that a 12-month sentence differs from a one-year sentence under Virginia law. "While misdemeanor sentences and felony sentences are treated differently in Virginia, those differences are irrelevant for purposes of federal immigration law," Wilkinson wrote. The court emphasized that "there is no temporal difference between twelve calendar months and one calendar year," making the offense fall within the immigration statute's prohibition on cancellation of removal for crimes carrying "a sentence of one year or longer."
The Board of Immigration Appeals had initially affirmed an immigration judge's decision denying Perdomo Ulloa's cancellation application, then denied his motion for reconsideration after he cited a Virginia Court of Appeals decision distinguishing between 12-month and one-year sentences. Perdomo Ulloa filed two petitions for review with the Fourth Circuit, which consolidated the challenges to both BIA decisions.
The decision aligns the Fourth Circuit with other federal appellate courts that have found offenses carrying exactly one year of imprisonment fall within immigration law's removal provisions. The ruling reinforces that federal immigration consequences turn on sentence length rather than state law classifications of crimes as misdemeanors versus felonies, potentially affecting numerous immigration cases involving state offenses with 12-month maximum penalties.