In an EOIR Newsletter, an article describes the difference in immigration consequences between a conviction vacated on a ground of legal invalidity, and one expunged solely for purposes of rehabilitation or to avoid immigration consequences:

The expungement of a record of conviction is [t]he removal of a conviction (esp. for a first offense) from a persons criminal record. Blacks Law Dictionary 621 (8th ed. 2004). A vacatur is [t]he act of annulling or setting aside [or a] rule or order by which a proceeding is vacated. Id. at 1546.

Medina-Rosales v. Holder, ___ F.3d ___, ___, 2015 WL 756345 (10th Cir. Feb. 24, 2015) (where the immigrant and counsel are located in a circuit different from that in which the immigration judge conducts the hearing, the governing law is that of the circuit in which the immigration judge is located: The charging document establishes the hearing location, regardless of the location of the IJ and the holding of a video conference hearing.).

Medina-Rosales v. Holder, ___ F.3d ___, 2015 WL 756345 (10th Cir. Feb. 24, 2015) (the aggravated felony bar to eligibility for a waiver of inadmissibility under INA 212(h), applies only to those persons with an aggravated felony conviction who became LPRs at the time that they lawfully entered the United States); but see Matter of Koljenovic, 25 I&N Dec. 219 (2010).

Luna-Garcia v. Holder, __ F.3d __ (10th Cir. Feb. 10, 2015) (if a noncitizen seeks reasonable fear proceedings following reinstatement of a prior order of removal, the reinstated order is not final until the reasonable fear proceedings are complete).

Matter of Chairez, 26 I&N Dec. 478 (BIA 2015) (Chairez II) (Chairez Is interpretation of the divisibility standard used in the modified categorical analysis " adopting the Supreme Courts view in Descamps v. United States, 133 S. Ct. 2276 (2013), will only apply in circuits that have not explained how they understand divisibility after Descamps was decided; therefore, the test for when a statute is divisible will have to be litigated on a circuit-by-circuit basis); clarifying Matter of Chairez, 26 I&N Dec.

Flores v. Holder, ___ F.3d ___, 2015 WL 795212 (2d Cir. Feb. 26, 2015) (BIA abused discretion in denying motion to continue by failing to consider factors articulated in Matter of Hashmi: neither the IJ nor the BIA assessed whether Flores's wife's I"130 Petition was prima facie approvable, but instead considered the petition had actually been approved); citing Matter of Hashmi, 24 I. & N. Dec.

Flores v. Holder, ___ F.3d ___, 2015 WL 795212 (2d Cir. Feb. 26, 2015) (noncitizen convicted of aggravated felony not barred from 212(h) relief, since he had not previously been admitted at a lawful permanent resident), following Matter of Michel, 21 I. & N. Dec. 1101, 1104 (BIA 1998) (Section 212(h) of the Act, while specifically precluding waiver eligibility for a lawful permanent resident who has been convicted of an aggravated felony, imposes no such restriction on one who has not been admitted previously as a lawful permanent resident.).

Flores v. Holder, ___ F.3d ___, 2015 WL 795212 (2d Cir. Feb. 26, 2015) (rejecting government argument that the agency is not bound to follow Descamps on the basis that the case arose in the sentencing context; the BIA is bound to apply divisibility consistently with the individual circuits' interpretation of divisibility under Descamps.); following In re Chairez"Castrejon, 26 I. & N. Dec. 349, 354 (BIA 2014); accord, Kaufmann v. Holder, 759 F.3d 6, 8"9 (1st Cir.2014); Aguilar"Turcios v. Holder, 740 F.3d 1294, 1301"02 (9th Cir.2014); Donawa v. U.S. Attorney Gen., 735 F.3d 1275, 1280 n.

Flores v. Holder, ___ F.3d ___, ___, 2015 WL 795212 (2d Cir. Feb. 26, 2015) (BIA
erred by consulting the record of conviction to determine that Flores's underlying conduct"the touching of his hand to the genital area of th[e] victim"satisfied the generic definition of sexual abuse of a minor under 18 U.S.C. 3509(a). . . . The agency was instead required to consider whether the minimum conduct necessary to violate N.Y. Penal Law 130.65(3) was encompassed within 18 U.S.C. 3509(a)'s definition of sexual abuse.); see Ming Lam Sui v. INS, 250 F.3d 105, 117"18 (2d Cir.

Pan v. Holder, ___ F.3d ___, 2015 WL 304199 (2d Cir. Jan. 26, 2015) (granting petition for review of Immigration Judges denial of applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief pursuant to the Convention Against Torture, where the IJ and BIA failed to adequately explain why the significant violence petitioner suffered was insufficiently egregious to constitute persecution; and failed to consider record evidence, which tended to prove that the Kyrgyz police and unwilling or unable to protect petitioner from private persecutors).