The Board of Immigration Appeals has sustained DHS's appeal and reversed an Immigration Judge's grant of cancellation of removal under INA § 240A(a) as a matter of discretion. Reviewing discretion de novo and applying the balancing test from Matter of C-V-T-, the Board held that the Immigration Judge did not adequately account for the respondent's two drug-related convictions from 2022 and 2023 and a pending domestic violence case arising from conduct while he was on probation, which the Board treated as a serious negative factor under Matter of Pinzon, since criminal conduct may be considered even without a conviction.
The Board acknowledged the respondent's equities, including prior employment and tax payments, remorse, character witnesses, family ties, hardship, and length of residence, but found that the serious adverse factors outweighed them, noting that discretion generally requires unusual or outstanding countervailing equities where an applicant has serious criminal convictions. Because he was not entitled to relief as a matter of discretion, the Board did not decide whether his conviction was an aggravated felony, and it ordered him removed to China.
The full text of Matter of Guanrong Yang can be found here: https://www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1469341/dl?inline