United States Court of Appeals
                     For the First Circuit


No. 18-1823

                    RICHARD MARVIN THOMPSON,

                          Petitioner,

                               v.

                        WILLIAM P. BARR,
                UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL,

                          Respondent.


               PETITION FOR REVIEW OF AN ORDER OF
                THE BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS


                             Before

                Torruella, Thompson, and Barron,
                         Circuit Judges.


     Gregory Romanovsky, with whom Romanovsky Law Offices was on
brief, for petitioner.
     William M. Tong, Attorney General of Connecticut, with whom
Jane Rosenberg, Assistant Attorney General, and Clare Kindall,
Solicitor General, were on brief, as amicus curiae for the State
of Connecticut.
     Trina Realmuto, Kristin Macleod-Ball, Emma Winger, and
American Immigration Council, as amicus curiae for the American
Immigration Council.
     Jessica E. Burns, Senior Litigation Counsel, Office of
Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, U.S. Department of
Justice, with whom Joseph H. Hunt, Assistant Attorney General,
Civil Division, and Keith I. McManus, Assistant Director, Office
of Immigration Litigation, were on brief, for respondent.
May 21, 2020




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            TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge.         Petitioner Richard Marvin

Thompson ("Thompson") appeals the Board of Immigration Appeals'

("BIA") denial of his motion to reopen sua sponte his immigration

proceedings, alleging that the BIA committed a clear legal error.

Thompson asks this Court to exercise jurisdiction to review whether

the BIA clearly erred when it determined that he was not entitled

to relief from deportation under section 237(a)(2)(A)(vi) of the

Immigration and Nationality Act ("INA"), 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)

(A)(vi) (the "Pardon Waiver Clause"), because a pardon issued by

the Connecticut Board of Pardons and Paroles is "not effective for

purposes of establishing entitlement to" a waiver of deportation.

Because we find that this Court has jurisdiction to review this

colorable legal question and because, here, the BIA departed from

its settled course of adjudication, we vacate the decision of the

BIA   and   remand   for    further   proceedings   consistent   with   this

opinion.

                                      I.

            Thompson is a citizen of Jamaica.         In 1997, at the age

of fourteen, he was admitted to the United States as a lawful

permanent resident.        When he was seventeen years old, Thompson was

arrested and charged with second-degree assault, a felony in

violation of Connecticut General Statute § 53a-60, to which he

pleaded guilty in Connecticut state court in 2001.          He received a


                                      -3-
suspended sentence and three years' probation.                Without incident,

Thompson completed the terms of his probation, received his GED,

and worked for over ten years as a commercial operator.

               Based on his 2001 conviction, in March 2012, the United

States     Department       of    Homeland       Security   initiated      removal

proceedings against Thompson charging him as removable pursuant

to: (1) 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(i), for having committed a crime

of moral turpitude within five years after admission and for which

a term of imprisonment of one year or more could be imposed; and

(2)   8    U.S.C.     § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii),        for   having   committed      an

aggravated felony.          Prior to his deportation hearing, Thompson

applied to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services

("USCIS") for derivative citizenship through his U.S.-citizen

father.        USCIS denied the application, and an Immigration Judge

adopted the USCIS's reasoning, later affirmed by the BIA and this

Court     in    Thompson    v.    Lynch,    that   Thompson    did   no