On August 15, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit published Bent v. Garland, an important decision clarifying for the first time in a published opinion whether California state convictions vacated under California Penal Code (PC) § 1473.7(a)(1) are affective to eliminate the conviction for immigration purposes. The Bent majority specifically held that PC § 1473.7(a)(1) “provides a vehicle to vacate a conviction to address a substantive or procedural error that renders a conviction ‘legally invalid.’ The text does not permit a state court to vacate a conviction to alleviate any immigration consequences arising from the conviction or sentence.” In other words, convictions vacated under PC § 1473.7(a)(1) are based on a procedural or substantive error in the underlying criminal proceedings and therefore cannot form the basis for removability or ineligibility for an immigration benefit. Bent’s proceedings will be remanded to the Board of Immigration Appeals for the entry of a new decision.

California PC § 1473.7 took effect on January 1, 2017, and it has provided a path for many noncitizens to vacate convictions where they can show, among other things, that they were not properly advised of the immigration consequences of their conviction before they pleaded guilty or proceeded to trial. For the past seven years, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has contested the efficacy of these vacaturs for immigration purposes. Now, the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Bent solidifies that this statute is a powerful tool to protect the rights of noncitizens in California—both in the criminal legal system and under immigration law​.

Hats off to Kari Hong of the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project! Read the full decision here.