Case: 19-60342 Document: 00515858968 Page: 1 Date Filed: 05/12/2021 United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit FILED May 12, 2021 No. 19-60342 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk Vu Quang Nguyen, also known as Vi Quang Nguyen, also known as Vu Hguyen, Petitioner, versus Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney General, Respondent. Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals BIA No. A057 359 272 Before Jones, Clement, and Graves, Circuit Judges. James E. Graves, Jr., Circuit Judge: Vu Quang Nguyen, a Vietnam native, asks the court to reevaluate a Board of Immigration Appeals decision that affirmed the ruling of an immigration judge who had found that Mr. Nguyen was subject to removal from the United States because he had been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude. Though Mr. Nguyen has had a few run-ins with the law, the immigration judge based the removal order on his California forgery conviction. Case: 19-60342 Document: 00515858968 Page: 2 Date Filed: 05/12/2021 No. 19-60342 To prove the conviction’s existence, the Department of Homeland Security submitted a plea agreement and terms of probation form. The form shows that Mr. Nguyen pleaded guilty to forgery, details the facts, and shows that he received a sentence of 240 days in jail and three years of probation. Mr. Nguyen, his lawyer, the prosecutor, interpreter, and the deputy clerk of court all signed the plea agreement. The deputy clerk stamped the agreement as filed. Though this signed, stamped, and filed document lacks a judge’s signature, we hold that it can serve as clear and convincing evidence of a conviction and therefore deny Mr. Nguyen’s petition for review. I. Mr. Nguyen was admitted to the U.S. as a lawful permanent resident in 2004. California authorities arrested him multiple times between 2010 and 2011. Records show that he entered guilty pleas for three counts of burglary, three counts of false presentation of identifying information, and one count of forgery. In 2018, authorities apprehended Mr. Nguyen at George Bush Intercontinental Airport where he applied for admission to the U.S. as a lawful permanent resident. DHS served him with a Notice to Appear and charged him with removability pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(2)(A)(i)(I) as an alien convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude. Mr. Nguyen appeared before the immigration judge and admitted the allegations regarding his nationality but denied the charges related to his forgery conviction. He did not file an application for relief from removal but instead challenged the grounds for removal. He argued that the document presented, the “Advisement and Waiver of Rights for a Felony Guilty Plea” that includes a “Terms and Conditions of Felony Probation” page, was insufficient to establish the existence of a conviction under 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(48)(A) by clear and convincing evidence. Mr. Nguyen admitted that he signed the plea agreement form and accepted that forgery is a crime involving moral turpitude. But he instead argued that the form did not show 2 Case: …
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