Leonardo Jimenez-Ariza v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

In these consolidated petitions for review, Leonardo Jimenez-Ariza, a native and citizen of Colombia, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) orders dismissing his appeal from an immigration judge’s removal order and denying his motion to reopen. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We review de novo constitutional claims and questions of law, and for abuse of discretion the denial of a motion to reopen. Hernandez-Velasquez v. Holder, 611 F.3d 1073, 1077 (9th Cir.2010). In a July 8, 2008, memorandum disposition we previously denied the petition for review in No. 04-76778, but we later stayed issuance of the mandate and consolidated the petition with No. 09-70613. We now order the mandate to issue. In No. 09-70613, we deny the petition for review.

The BIA did not violate Jimenez-Ariza’s equal protection rights when it determined that the pardon of his 1990 Georgia conviction for possession of cocaine did not eliminate its immigration consequences under Lujan-Armendariz v. INS, 222 F.3d 728, 735 (9th Cir.2000), because a pardon under Ga. Const, art. IV, § 2 is “generally dissimilar” to an expungement under the Federal First Offender Act…