Flores

MEMORANDUM **

The Board of Immigration Appeals did not abuse its discretion in denying Flores’s application for a discretionary deportation waiver under 8 U.S.C. § 1251 (a)(1)(H). Far from ignoring considerations favorable to the petitioner, cf. Mattis v. INS, 774 F.2d 965, 968 (9th Cir.1985), the Board, in its March 10, 2000, decision, took note of Flores’s arguments, as well as the new supporting evidence she offered — including “declarations by [Flores], her husband, and an assistant public defender, a psychologist’s letter, and a medical diagnosis.”

Although the Board concluded that the waiver should nonetheless be denied, it did not arrive at this conclusion in a “summary or conclusory” fashion. Id. at 967 . Instead, it provided reasons for rejecting Flores’s hardship argument: The marriage occurred after deportation proceedings had already been commenced against Flores, and Flores’s husband stated that he would accompany Flores to Taiwan if she was deported. Furthermore, the Board explained that even if Flores’s hardship argument and the alleged mitigating circumstances surrounding her welfare fraud conviction were credited, they would not overcome her “significant adverse…