PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _____________ No. 21-3333 _____________ ERSIN DOYDUK, Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA _______________ On Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (Agency Case No. A201-112-403) Immigration Judge: R.K. Malloy _______________ Argued October 18, 2022 _______________ Before: GREENAWAY, JR., MATEY, and ROTH, Circuit Judges. (Filed: April 14, 2023) John P. Leschak [ARGUED] Leschak & Associates 180 South Street Freehold, NJ 07728 Counsel for Petitioner Merrick B. Garland Erik R. Quick Jonathan A. Robbins [ARGUED] United States Department of Justice Office of Immigration Litigation P.O. Box 878 Ben Franklin Station Washington, DC 20044 Counsel for Respondent _______________ OPINION OF THE COURT _______________ MATEY, Circuit Judge. An expungement order eliminates the legal record of an event, but it does not erase history. Ersin Doyduk is a citizen of Turkey who overstayed his visa. He asked for an adjustment of status, but an Immigration Judge (“IJ”) denied his application, citing facts surrounding Doyduk’s involvement in a stabbing. Error, Doyduk argues, because those facts appeared in an expunged criminal complaint. But the language of the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) allows IJs to consider facts underlying expunged charges. So we will deny the petition. 2 I. Doyduk came to the United States from Turkey on a visa that expired in 2010. Still in the country a year later, he took part in a night of heavy drinking with his then-girlfriend Nadezdah Filipova (who was also in the country without authorization). Later that night, Filipova was stabbed in the stomach, suffering a serious injury. Panicked, Doyduk called his boss, Murat Coskun, asking him to come to the apartment. Coskun arrived and called 911. Police responded and arrested Doyduk. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania charged him with five criminal offenses: aggravated assault, possessing an instrument of crime, possessing a prohibited offensive weapon, simple assault, and recklessly endangering another person. But all the charges were withdrawn after Filipova and Coskun refused to testify. And the charging documents were eventually discarded under a Pennsylvania law that requires expungement after eighteen months pass without action. See 18 Pa. C.S. § 9122(a)(1). The Department of Homeland Security initiated removal proceedings against Doyduk in 2011, charging him with removability under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(1)(C)(i) for having overstayed his visa. In 2012, Doyduk conceded removability but began seeking an adjustment of status based on his marriage to a United States citizen. A hearing on his adjustment application was held in 2017, at which Detective Andrew Jackson (the officer who arrested Doyduk) testified. According to his testimony, Detective Jackson responded to Coskun’s 911 call and found Doyduk’s apartment in disarray, with Filipova lying in the bathroom bleeding from her stomach. He observed blood throughout the home and on a small paring knife in the kitchen sink. Detective Jackson 3 recalled Doyduk wearing a bloody shirt. He also noticed scratches on Doyduk’s neck that Doyduk could not explain. Detective Jackson added that Filipova first told him that Doyduk stabbed …
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