The Immigration Judge denied our motion to terminate arguing that the only reviewable document under Shepard for bench-trial cases is the "bench-trial judge's formal rulings of law and findings of fact,” rather than just a minute order. We argued that, while the Ninth Circuit has certainly expanded the reviewable documents in pleaded cases, those are all based on the "comparable" language in Shepard. Since that language applies only to pleaded cases, the government must produce the bench-trial judge's formal rulings of law and findings of fact in order to prevail where a statute is divisible.
While the IJ denied our motion, she noted on the record that she "might be wrong." The appeal went out yesterday.
