United States Ninth Circuit

Petition for review of the BIA's dismissal of petitioner's appeal of a denial of his application for adjustment of status is denied where: 1) petitioner is an inadmissible alien and no statutory basis exists to waive his inadmissibility, and thus he could not adjust his status to that of a lawful permanent resident; and 2) neither a state pardon nor his equal protection claim could overcome the fact that Congress has expressly declined to provide a waiver for an inadmissible alien convicted of a crime relating to a controlled substance.

Appellate Information

• Argued 05/08/2008
• Decided 12/01/2008
• Published 12/01/2008

Judges

• RAWLINSON, Circuit Judge:, Before:  SUSAN P. GRABER and JOHNNIE B. RAWLINSON, Circuit Judges, and OTIS D. WRIGHT II, District Judge.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Russell W. Pritchett, Pritchett & Jacobson, Bellingham, WA, for petitioner-appellant Pedro Aguilera-Montero.


• For Appellees:
  
• M. JocelynLopez Wright and Kristin K. Edison (argued), Office of Immigration Litigation, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for respondent-appellee Michael Mukasey.