Abebe

I. BACKGROUND2

Petitioner is a citizen of Ethiopia who entered the United States as a refugee and became a lawful permanent resident (“LPR”) in 1984. In 1992, pursuant to a guilty plea, Abebe was convicted of committing “lewd/lascivious conduct upon a child” in violation of California Penal Code § 288(a). He was sentenced to one year in jail and three years of supervised probation. In addition, Abebe was required to register as a sex offender and to provide registration updates to local police within five days of his birthday for each year he remained in California. After serving his sentence, Petitioner’s only other contact with the criminal justice system occurred in 2001 1 Unless otherwise indicated, statutory references are to the INA. Paral- lel citations to the United States Code are provided occasionally. 2 In this opinion, we recount only those facts relevant to the denial of § 212(c) relief, and we omit facts pertinent to the withholding of removal claim. 8104 ABEBE v. GONZALES when he failed to renew his sex offender registration by the statutory deadline. He was convicted of an offense under Cali- fornia Penal Code § 290(g)(2) and sentenced to…