In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 17‐1689 ALEKSEY ARKADYEVICH RUDERMAN, Petitioner, v. MATTHEW G. WHITAKER, Acting Attorney General of the United States, Respondent. ____________________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. No. A076‐054‐163 ____________________ ARGUED FEBRUARY 20, 2018 — DECIDED JANUARY 29, 2019 ____________________ Before WOOD, Chief Judge, and EASTERBROOK and BARRETT, Circuit Judges. BARRETT, Circuit Judge. Aleksey Arkadyevich Ruderman is seeking to avoid removal to Belarus, his native country. An immigration judge ruled that Ruderman was inadmissible under the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(2)(B), and thus subject to removal. The judge also 2 No. 17‐1689 held that Ruderman was not eligible for a waiver of inadmis‐ sibility and adjustment of status, cancellation of removal, asy‐ lum, withholding of removal, or protection under the Con‐ vention Against Torture. The Board of Immigration Appeals agreed. In particular, it held that Ruderman had not raised any meaningful challenge to his inadmissibility determina‐ tion and that even if the immigration judge had applied the wrong legal standard to determine that Ruderman was ineli‐ gible for a waiver of inadmissibility, her alternative discre‐ tionary denial made the error harmless. Ruderman petitions us for review of those holdings, along with others reached by the immigration judge and affirmed by the Board. While we largely agree with the Board’s analy‐ sis, we hold that it was flawed with respect to one issue: the question whether Ruderman is statutorily inadmissible. We therefore grant Ruderman’s petition and remand for the Board to revisit that question and, if necessary, to decide whether Ruderman is eligible for a waiver. I. Ruderman moved to the United States when he was nine‐ teen to escape discrimination and violence directed at him on account of his Jewish heritage. He moved from his native land of Belarus, a former Soviet republic that declared independ‐ ence during his childhood. In Belarus, Ruderman and his fam‐ ily were targeted for abuse by Neo‐Nazis and pro‐Russia ad‐ vocates who would shout profanities at them, perform the Nazi salute, leave anti‐Jewish propaganda in their mailbox, and throw bottles and stones at their home. Ruderman received even worse treatment at school. His (sometimes much older) classmates would bully and beat him No. 17‐1689 3 and the handful of other Jewish students. The head of the school and the police were alerted but did nothing to address the situation. One particularly severe attack resulted in stitches and a permanent scar, while another resulted in two broken wrists that have bothered him ever since. After attackers broke Ruderman’s wrists, his parents sent him to a private school where he would be safer. His time there was cut short, however, by his father’s death. Arkady Ruderman, a documentary filmmaker, died while filming a piece on government corruption in Tajikistan—another for‐ mer Soviet republic. Although government officials reported that he was killed in a car accident, Arkady had previously been detained and battered by the KGB, and eyewitnesses ...
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