Alejandro Baez-Orozco v. LORETTA LYNCH, Attorney General

NOT FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
ALEJANDRO BAEZ-OROZCO,
Petitioner,
v.
LORETTA LYNCH, Attorney General
Respondent.
No. 13-71152
Agency No. A096-866-243
MEMORANDUM*
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
FILED
DEC 17 2015
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
* 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.

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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.
2

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