In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 20-1304 HECTOR MANUEL ZELAYA DIAZ, a.k.a. ELVIS DANIEL ROSALES-SARMIENTO, Petitioner, v. JEFFREY A. ROSEN, Acting Attorney General of the United States, Respondent. ____________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals. No. A073-755-354. ____________________ ARGUED NOVEMBER 5, 2020 — DECIDED JANUARY 15, 2021 ____________________ Before SYKES, Chief Judge, and HAMILTON and SCUDDER, Circuit Judges. HAMILTON, Circuit Judge. This petition for judicial review of an immigration decision focuses on the power of an immi- gration judge to close a removal or deportation case adminis- tratively while the non-citizen pursues other relief. The Board of Immigration Appeals denied relief in this case by following 2 No. 20-1304 a directive of the Attorney General that sharply limited the power of immigration judges to close a case administratively. Earlier this year, however, we held that the Attorney Gen- eral’s directive was contrary to law. Meza Morales v. Barr, 973 F.3d 656, 667 (7th Cir. 2020). The Board of Immigration Ap- peals simply did not exercise its discretion according to law in this case. We therefore grant the petition for review and re- mand for a proper exercise of discretion under the Board’s precedents in Matter of Avetisyan, 25 I&N Dec. 688 (BIA 2012), and Matter of W-Y-U, 27 I&N Dec. 17 (BIA 2017). I. Factual and Procedural History Petitioner Hector Manuel Zelaya Diaz entered the United States without inspection on May 6, 1995. He was placed in deportation proceedings with an Order to Show Cause. He was scheduled to appear for a master calendar hearing on Au- gust 23, 1995. The notice of that hearing did not reach him, and Zelaya failed to appear. A final order of deportation was entered in his absence. Zelaya later left the United States, but he re-entered sometime before December 30, 1998. In 2014, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement learned of Ze- laya’s presence in the United States following a traffic-related arrest in Indiana. On February 3, 2014, Zelaya filed a motion to reopen his old deportation case. An immigration judge granted that motion because the record showed that the initial Order to Show Cause in 1995 had never reached him. At a March 22, 2018 master calendar hearing, Zelaya moved for administrative closure of his deportation proceed- ing to allow for what is known in the world of immigration law as “repapering,” by which a deportation proceeding that began under pre-1996 law can be converted into a cancella- tion-of-removal proceeding under 1996 legislation codified in No. 20-1304 3 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b). Repapering would enable Zelaya to seek cancellation of removal, for which he appears to be legally el- igible. The immigration judge denied his request for administra- tive closure. Zelaya appealed to the Board of Immigration Ap- peals, and on January 23, 2020, the Board dismissed Zelaya’s appeal and ordered voluntary deportation. The Board con- cluded that administrative closure was not warranted. The Board cited the Attorney General’s opinion ...
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