JOSE SANTOS GUZMAN GONZALEZ v. JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS III
US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Wynn, June 27, 2018,
Immigration – A defendant has not been “convicted” for immigration purposes if judgment is withheld and only court costs are imposed with no actual sentence

Facts:
Jose Guzman Gonzalez left El Salvador and illegally entered the United States.
In 2002, Guzman received a citation for misdemeanor possession of marijuana in North Carolina. Guzman pled guilty and received a “prayer for judgment continued” (similar in some ways to Maryland’s Probation before Judgment). Guzman was not ordered to pay a fine or restitution and was not sentenced to any jail time. The only thing that was required of Guzman was that he pay $100 in court costs.
In 2015, the Department of Homeland Security moved to have Guzman deported. Guzman tried to challenge the deportation on the grounds that he had been in the United States for over a decade.
DHS argued that Guzman was not eligible for cancellation of deportation because of his prior CDS conviction.
The Immigration Board sided with DHS.
Guzman appealed, arguing that his North Carolina “prayer for judgment continued” did not qualify as a conviction.

Held: The 4th Circuit agreed. Because there was no “punishment” or “sentence” involved, there was no conviction. The fact that Guzman had to pay court costs did not change that.