Torres v. Barr, No. 13-70653 (9th Cir. 2019)
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The Ninth Circuit denied a petition for review of the BIA's decision affirming the IJ's determination that petitioner was removable as an immigrant who at the time of application for admission lacked a valid entry document under 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(7)(A)(i)(I), and that she was ineligible for cancellation of removal.
The panel followed its binding precedent in Minto v. Sessions, 854 F.3d 619 (9th Cir. 2017), cert. denied, 138 S. Ct. 1261 (2018), and Eche v. Holder, 694 F.3d 1026 (9th Cir. 2012), holding that substantial evidence supported the BIA's decision. In Minto, the panel held that although Congress's two-year reprieve protected immigrants like petitioner from removability under 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(6)(A)(i) on the basis that they had not been admitted or paroled into the United States, it did not exempt them from removal based on other grounds of removability. Therefore, the panel held that reprieve did not offer petitioner protection from the charge that she was an immigrant who at the time of application for admission lacked a valid entry document. The panel also held that substantial evidence supported the BIA's determination that petition failed to establish the ten years of continuous presence in the United States required for cancellation of removal. Finally, the panel lacked jurisdiction to consider petitioner's request to remand.
Court Description: Immigration. Denying Catherine Lopena Torres’s petition for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals, the panel concluded that, because it must follow the court’s binding precedent involving immigrants residing in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Torres was removable and ineligible for cancellation of removal. Torres, a native and citizen of the Philippines, entered the CNMI as a lawful guest worker at a time when the CNMI was enforcing its own immigration laws pursuant to a covenant between it and the United States establishing the CNMI as a Commonwealth of the United States. Effective November 28, 2009, U.S. immigration laws were imposed on the territory, but Congress enacted a two-year reprieve during which immigrants who had been lawfully present in the CNMI under CNMI law on the effective date would not be deported under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i) for not having been admitted or paroled into the United States. In 2010, Torres was placed in removal proceedings, and the BIA determined that she was removable under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(7)(A)(i)(I) as an alien who “at the time of application for admission” lacked a “valid entry document.” The BIA also concluded that she was ineligible for cancellation of removal.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on January 13, 2020.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on September 24, 2020.
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