Mejia-Castanon v. Attorney General United States, No. 17-2901 (3d Cir. 2019)
Annotate this CasePetitioner, a citizen of Guatemala, entered the U.S. without permission in 2002. He was charged as removable in 2013 and sought cancellation of removal. Petitioner admitted to paying $8,000 to an individual to help his brother and daughters unlawfully enter the U.S. in 2015 and 2016, after he was served with a notice to appear. The IJ determined Petitioner had engaged in alien smuggling, was not a person of good moral character, 8 U.S.C. 1101(f)(3), 1182(a)(6)(E), and was ineligible for cancellation of removal. The BIA rejected Petitioner's argument that events occurring after the service of a notice to appear could not be used to evaluate his good moral character under the stop-time rule, 8 U.S.C. 1229b(d)(1). Aliens who are ordered removed may apply for cancellation of removal if they have maintained a continuous physical presence in the U.S. for at least 10 years and have been a person of good moral character for such period. Under the “stop-time rule,” the physical presence period ends when DHS serves the notice to appear so that aliens cannot continue to accrue physical presence time during the pendency of lengthy removal proceedings. The Third Circuit denied his petition for review. The stop-time rule does not truncate the good moral character window. The relevant time period for evaluating an alien’s good moral character is the 10-year period before the final administrative decision on an alien’s application for cancellation of removal.
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