United States Ninth Circuit

A petition for review of a denial of petitioner's motion to reopen is granted where: 1) the court had jurisdiction to review the denial of the motion to reopen; 2) the BIA erred by placing on petitioner the burden of proving that his first conviction was vacated for substantive, non-immigration related reasons; 3) the government failed to carry its burden of proof as to the reasons for the vacatur; and 4) the BIA erred in determining that the state crime to which petitioner pled guilty a second time qualified as an aggravated felony for immigration purposes.

Appellate Information

• Argued 07/24/2006
• Decided 11/03/2006
• Published 11/03/2006

Judges

• MERRITT, Senior Circuit Judge., Before PROCTER HUG, GILBERT S. MERRITT, and RICHARD A. PAEZ, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Christopher J. Stender, Stender & Pope, P.C., Phoenix, AZ, for the petitioner.


• For Appellees:
  
• Paul K. Charlton, United States Attorney, John Joseph Tuchi, Deputy Appellate Chief, and Cynthia M. Parsons, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Phoenix, AZ, for the respondents-appellees.