Tista v. Holder Jr., No. 08-75167 (9th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CasePetitioner, a native and citizen of Guatemala, petitioned for review of the BIA's denial of his application for special rule cancellation of removal under the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA), Pub. L. No. 105-100, 111 Stat. 2160. The BIA determined that petitioner did not meet NACARA's definition of a child at the time that his father was granted relief, and that the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA), Pub. L. No. 107-208, 116 Stat. 927, did not apply to him. The court concluded that petitioner had not demonstrated that the CSPA applied to NACARA, or that failure of Congress to apply the CSPA to NACARA violated the equal protection component of due process. Therefore, the court denied the petition for review where petitioner was relegated to and bound by the multitude of other immigration provisions that Congress has adopted.
Court Description: Immigration. The panel denied Albaro Elias Tista’s petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ denial of his application for special rule cancellation of removal under the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act as a derivative beneficiary of his father. The panel held that Elias, who applied for NACARA before he was twenty-one years old but was over twenty-one when his father was granted relief, failed to demonstrate that the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA), under which his age would be calculated from the date his father filed for relief, applies to NACARA. The panel held that the CSPA by its plain language makes no reference to NACARA, and that there is no basis to find that NACARA applicants come within CSPA’s provisions. The panel also held that Elias did not demonstrate that the failure of Congress to apply the CSPA to NACARA violates the equal protection component of due process.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.