Joseph v. Lynch, No. 14-2935 (7th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseJoseph, a Nigerian citizen, entered the U.S. unlawfully in 1991 and was placed in removal proceedings after convictions for theft and bank fraud. He argued his marriage to a U.S. citizen as a basis for adjusting his status and sought a waiver of inadmissibility, arguing that removal would cause his family “extreme hardship,” 8 U.S.C. 1182(h)(1)(B). An IJ concluded that any hardship to his sons would be no worse than confronted by any child whose parent is deported. The BIA agreed. Joseph’s current motion to reopen is his eighth, but his third premised on the Violence Against Women Act, 8 U.S.C. 1229a(c)(7)(C)(iv), which extends to one year the deadline for a motion to reopen asserting that the alien facing removal is a victim of domestic violence. That longer deadline can be waived if the battered alien “demonstrates extraordinary circumstances or extreme hardship to the alien’s child.” The first of Joseph’s VAWA motions missed the deadline by four years. Joseph claimed that he was a victim of spousal abuse and should be granted a waiver based on hardship to his children. The BIA denied the motion, noting failure to corroborate his claim of spousal abuse and to submit evidence of unusual hardship. The Seventh Circuit dismissed, noting that its jurisdiction is limited to legal or constitutional questions. Joseph presented neither.
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