Conteh v. Attorney General of the United States

455 F. App'x 217
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedNovember 23, 2011
DocketNo. 11-1924
StatusPublished

This text of 455 F. App'x 217 (Conteh v. Attorney General of the United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Conteh v. Attorney General of the United States, 455 F. App'x 217 (3d Cir. 2011).

Opinion

[218]*218OPINION

PER CURIAM.

Aloysious Allie Conteh petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), which dismissed his appeal from an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) final removal order. We will deny the petition for review.

I.

Because the parties are familiar with the history and facts of the case, we will recount the events in summary fashion. Conteh, a native and citizen of Sierra Leone, was admitted to the United States on December 7, 1988, as a non-immigrant visitor with authorization to remain for six months. Conteh overstayed his visitor’s visa, and in October 1998 he was served with an Order to Show Cause (“OSC”) and charged as deportable.

Conteh conceded deportability, but sought asylum and related relief. In February 1996, the IJ denied Conteh asylum, but granted him voluntary departure. Conteh appealed to the BIA. Due to an inability to locate or recreate the record of the Immigration Court proceedings, the BIA administratively closed Conteh’s case in 2002. In 2004, the BIA remanded the case to the IJ on the Government’s motion for a de novo hearing on the merits, and in 2006 the IJ granted Conteh asylum. The Government appealed, and the BIA held Conteh was ineligible for asylum, but remanded the case for the IJ to consider whether to grant Conteh voluntary departure. The IJ denied voluntary departure. Conteh appealed, filed a motion to remand, and argued he was eligible for suspension of deportation.1 In August 2008, the BIA granted Conteh’s motion to remand.

Before the IJ, Conteh argued that the “stop-time” provision, enacted by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (“IIRIRA”), and codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(d), would be im-permissibly retroactive if applied to his request for suspension of deportation.2 The IJ disagreed, and held Conteh was ineligible for suspension of deportation because his receipt of the OSC in 1993 stopped the time accrual of continuous physical presence. Conteh appealed to the BIA, renewing his argument that the stop-time rule was impermissibly retroactive. The BIA rejected the retroactivity argument and held that Conteh was ineligible for suspension of deportation because he could not establish the required seven years of continuous physical presence. See 8 U.S.C. § 1254(a)(1) (repealed). Conteh filed a timely petition for review.

[219]*219II.

Conteh argues in his brief that (1) the BIA’s application of the stop-time rule is impermissibly retroactive; (2) even if the stop-time provision is applied, he has established sufficient physical presence to qualify for suspension of deportation; and (8) his conviction does not render him ineligible for suspension of deportation. Con-teh’s first argument fails based on our holdings in other cases that imposition of the stop-time provision is not impermissi-bly retroactive. We also reject Conteh’s argument that he has met the physical presence requirement. Because Conteh has not accrued the required continuous physical presence, we need not reach Con-teh’s argument that his conviction does not prevent him from eligibility for suspension of deportation.

In Pinho, we applied the familiar analysis of Landgraf v. USI Film Products, 511 U.S. 244, 114 S.Ct. 1483, 128 L.Ed.2d 229 (1994), and held that the plain meaning of IIRIRA and NACARA “established] Congress’s intent to apply the stop-time rule to all cases, including those pending”3 as of IIRIRA’s enactment. 249 F.3d at 188. Under Landgraf, where Congress’s intent to apply a statute retroactively is clear, the presumption against retroactivity does not apply. Pinho, 249 F.3d at 188. We further held that retroactive application of the stop-time rule to applications for suspension of deportation does not violate an applicant’s due process rights because it does not impair any vested rights. See Pinho, 249 F.3d at 188-89. Conteh argues that the reasoning of Pinho is no longer valid because it was decided before INS v. St. Cyr, 533 U.S. 289, 121 S.Ct. 2271, 150 L.Ed.2d 347 (2001). In St. Cyr, however, the Supreme Court considered whether Congress’s repeal of INA § 212(c) was impermissibly retroactive as applied to aliens who pleaded guilty to crimes that made them deportable but who otherwise would have been eligible for a § 212(c) waiver at the time of their plea. Id. at 315-26, 121 S.Ct. 2271. The Court held that Congress’s intentions concerning whether the repeal of § 212(c) relief was to be applied retroactively was ambiguous, and that the statute imposed an impermissible retroactive effect on certain aliens. Id. Although the Court in St. Cyr found certain portions of the IIRIRA ambiguous, the Court made no comment regarding IIRIRA § 309(c)(5), at issue here. In fact, that section, which provides that the stop-time provision “shall apply to notices to appear issued before, on, or after the date of the enactment of this Act,” is remarkably similar to other provisions of IIRIRA that the Court in St. Cyr found unambiguous. See St. Cyr, 533 U.S. at 319 and n. 43, 121 S.Ct. 2271 (citing several sections of IIRIRA that contain “before, on, or after” language). Conteh’s case has nothing to do with eligibility for a § 212(c) waiver, and St. Cyr does not somehow overrule Pinho.

Moreover, this Court’s decisions since St. Cyr make clear that the relevant holding of Pinho still stands. See Arca-Pineda v. Att’y Gen. of the U.S., 527 F.3d 101, 107 (3d Cir.2008) (relying on Pinho to reject a due process challenge to the retroactive application of the stop-time rule); Briseno-Flores v. Att’y Gen. of the U.S., 492 F.3d 226, 230 (3d Cir.2007) (relying in part on the validity of Pinho in holding that 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(d)(l)(B) — which provides that the commission of certain crimes stops the clock — applies retroactively in cases where aliens seek suspen[220]*220sion of deportation). Accordingly, Con-teh’s argument is meritless.

Conteh next argues that even if the stop-time rule applies and the clock stops upon service of the OSC, the clock should start running again if there are delays in immigration proceedings not attributable to the alien. Additionally, he argues that the OSC should not be considered served until the Immigration Court receives it. In rejecting Conteh’s argument, the BIA explained that service of the OSC ends the period for accruing continuous physical presence, and that once that event occurs, the clock cannot be restarted. The BIA cited In re Mendoza-Sandino, 22 I. & N. Dec. 1236, 1241 (BIA 2000), to support its conclusion. In Briseno-Flores, this Court concluded that the holding of Mendoza-Sandino

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Related

Landgraf v. USI Film Products
511 U.S. 244 (Supreme Court, 1994)
Immigration & Naturalization Service v. St. Cyr
533 U.S. 289 (Supreme Court, 2001)
Briseno-Flores v. Attorney General of US
492 F.3d 226 (Third Circuit, 2007)
MENDOZA-SANDINO
22 I. & N. Dec. 1236 (Board of Immigration Appeals, 2000)

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Bluebook (online)
455 F. App'x 217, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/conteh-v-attorney-general-of-the-united-states-ca3-2011.