Petitioner subsequently sought a divorce. She then filed a motion to reopen the deportation proceedings. Although the Board previously found petitioner deportable due to her manslaughter conviction, her motion asserts an entitlement to a waiver of excludability premised on her status as a battered spouse. An alien who is the spouse of a citizen of the United States, who is a person of good moral character, who is eligible to be classified as an immediate relative . . . The Board denied her motion on July 12, 1995.
Petitioner now seeks judicial review.
At the present time, her divorce case is pending, as are certain domestic violence proceedings against her husband. We pause to emphasize the circumscribed nature of our review. We inquire only into the Board's denial of the motion to reopen, not its earlier adjudication of the merits of petitioner's excludability. 95-2309, slip op. Once the Board satisfies these obligations, however, it has discretion not only to deny a motion to reopen but also to deny a hearing thereon.