PEDRO JOSUE JIMENEZ-CEDILLO v. JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS III
US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Harris, March 20, 2018,
INS – When the Board of Immigration Appeals changed its mind about whether statutory rape qualified as a crime of “moral turpitude,” it had to explain why

Facts:
In 2015, Jimenez-Cedillo pled guilty in Worcester County, MD, to sexually soliciting a minor.
Deportation proceedings were started against him based in part on his conviction for a “crime of moral turpitude.”
Jimenez-Cedillo challenged these proceedings, arguing that Maryland’s Solicitation of a Minor law is not a crime of “moral turpitude.”
The Board of Immigration Appeals had previously held that statutory rape and similar crimes must have a “mistake of age” defense in order to count as a crime of moral turpitude.
In Jiminez-Cedillo’s case, the Board changed its rule and decided that statutory rape and similar cases qualify as crimes of moral turpitude “even if there was a reasonable mistake as to the victim’s age” as long as “the victim is particularly young” or “the age differential between the perpetrator and victim is significant.”
Jiminez-Cedillo then appealed the Board’s decision, arguing that the Board changed its rule without explaining the reason for the change. He also argued that Maryland’s Solicitation of a Minor law is not a crime of “moral turpitude.”

Held: The Fourth Circuit held that it was up to the Board to decide whether Maryland’s Solicitation of a Minor law is a crime of “moral turpitude,” but that if they changed the rule they had to explain the reason for the change. Because they didn’t, the case was sent back to the Board to do so.

Immigration – Moral Turpitude – An alien cannot seek admission to the country if they have been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude

Moral Turpitude – The term “moral turpitude” refers to behavior “that shocks the public conscience as being inherently base, vile, or depraved.”

Moral Turpitude – a crime involving moral turpitude contains “two essential elements: a culpable mental state and reprehensible conduct.”

Moral Turpitude – Sex Crimes Against Minors – sexual offenses against minors qualify as crimes involving moral turpitude if they require not only “reprehensible conduct,” but also “some degree of scienter, whether specific intent, deliberateness, willfulness, or recklessness.”

Moral Turpitude – Sex Crimes Against Minors – offenses should be treated as crimes involving moral turpitude when they are “limit[ed] . . . to defendants who knew, or reasonably should have known, that their intentional sexual acts were directed at children.”

Solicitation of a Minor – Maryland Law- The crime of Solicitation of a Minor has three elements:
(1) solicitation;
(2) of a minor or a law enforcement officer posing as a minor;
(3) to engage in a prohibited sex act.

Solicitation of a Minor – Maryland Law – Maryland law does not allow for a “mistake of age” defense in a statutory rape or similar context. There is no requirement that the defendant “knew or should have known that the person solicited was not of legal age.”