Court Opinion

ID: 9494945
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:51:01.459423+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:43.680271
License: Public Domain

FERGUSON, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I agree that Ramirez-Castro’s petition should be dismissed. Nevertheless, I write separately because, while I agree with the majority’s conclusion, I disagree with its statement that the general rule is convictions expunged under state law retain their immigration consequences. There is no general rule to this effect, and the majority relies on mere dictum to support it.
The majority oversimplifies the term “expungement statute,” using it to support this generalized rule. Its use of the term fails to distinguish between a statute, which dismisses the charges but allows other legal consequences to remain, and a statute, which wholly removes the conviction of guilt and prevents any future legal consequences to apply. As the majority recognizes, neither the California statute at issue in this ease nor the Arizona statute at issue in Murillo-Espinoza v. INS, 261 F.3d 771 (9th Cir.2001), completely eliminates the consequences of a state conviction. Thus, it logically follows that the setting aside of judgment under either statute cannot obviate the immigration consequences of a state conviction. In contrast, the Federal First Offender Act discussed in Lujan-Armendariz v. INS, 222 F.3d 728 (9th Cir.2000), removes the finding of guilt and provides that “no legal consequences may be imposed as a result of the defendant’s having committed the offense.” Id. at 735, 749 (holding that, when an alien could have been tried under the Federal First Offender Act, but was prosecuted instead under state law, he could not be deported).
The California statute at issue in this case allows a court to set aside a guilty verdict after a defendant has fulfilled or been discharged of the conditions of probation. However, under the statute, specific legal consequences of the conviction remain. For example, the statute provides that, “in any subsequent prosecution of the defendant for any offense, the prior conviction may be pleaded and proved and shall have the same effect as if ... the accusation or information[had not been] dismissed.” Cal.Penal Code § 1203.4(a). Thus, section 1203.4 does not remove all of the legal consequences of the original conviction, and “the formal judgment of guilty” under 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(48)(A) remains. Accordingly, Ramirez-Castro was properly found deportable.