Alejandro Baez-Orozco v. Loretta E. Lynch , 627 F. App'x 638 ( 2015 )

FILED
NOT FOR PUBLICATION DEC 17 2015
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
ALEJANDRO BAEZ-OROZCO, No. 13-71152
Petitioner, Agency No. A096-866-243
v. MEMORANDUM*
LORETTA LYNCH, Attorney General
Respondent.
On Petition for Review of an Order of
The Board of Immigration Appeals
Submitted December 11, 2015 **
Pasadena, California
Before: GOULD and BERZON, Circuit Judges, and ZOUHARY,*** District
Judge.
Alejandro Baez-Orozco challenges the decision of the Board of Immigration
Appeals (“BIA”) affirming the Immigration Judge’s denial of his application for
* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
**
The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
*** The Honorable Jack Zouhary, United States District Judge for the
Northern District of Ohio, sitting by designation.
adjustment of status. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 and deny the
petition for review.
The BIA reasonably concluded Baez’s prior drug convictions retained their
immigration consequences because they were expunged under a rehabilitative statute,
Cal. Penal Code § 1210.1. See Ramirez-Castro v. INS, 287 F.3d 1172, 1174 (9th Cir.
2002) (“For immigration purposes, a person continues to stand convicted of an offense
notwithstanding a later expungement under a state’s rehabilitative law.”). The statute
under which Baez obtained relief requires completion of a drug treatment program and
substantial compliance with the conditions of probation, and leaves in place a number
of civil disabilities. Although Baez’s convictions were dismissed, that dismissal “does
not reflect a judgment about the merits of the underlying adjudication of guilt.” In re
Marroquin-Garcia, 23 I. & N. Dec. 705, 713–14 (BIA 1997; A.G. 2005).
Baez also fails to distinguish Cal. Penal Code § 1210.1 from a similar statute
this Court has previously recognized as rehabilitative, Cal. Penal Code § 1203.4. See
Ramirez-Castro, 287 F.3d at 1175–76; see also Marroquin-Garcia, 23 I. & N. Dec.
at 713–14. Because Baez continues to stand convicted of his offenses for immigration
purposes, he was properly found ineligible for a status adjustment.
DENIED.
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