Galindo-Romero v. Holder

621 F.3d 924
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMay 9, 2011
Docket05-73517
StatusPublished

This text of 621 F.3d 924 (Galindo-Romero v. Holder) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Galindo-Romero v. Holder, 621 F.3d 924 (9th Cir. 2011).

Opinion

640 F.3d 873 (2011)

Pedro GALINDO-ROMERO, Petitioner,
v.
Eric H. HOLDER Jr., Attorney General, Respondent.

No. 05-73517.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted May 4, 2010.
Filed September 2, 2010.
Amended May 9, 2011.

*874 Professor Peter Afrasiabi, Professor Kathryn M. Davis, and Paul Alarcon (Student), Chapman University School of Law, Ninth Circuit Appellate Litigation Clinic, Orange, CA, for the petitioner.

Anthony P. Nicastro, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Immigration Litigation, Washington, D.C., for the respondent.

Before: RICHARD R. CLIFTON and JAY S. BYBEE, Circuit Judges, and EDWARD R. KORMAN, Senior District Judge.[*]

ORDER

The panel has unanimously decided to amend its opinion, available at 621 F.3d 924, filed on September 2, 2010.

On page 928, delete footnote 4.

On page 930, delete footnote 5.

With these amendments, the panel has voted to deny the petition for rehearing and petition for rehearing en banc.

The full court has been advised of the petition for rehearing en banc and no judge has requested a vote on whether to rehear the matter en banc. Fed. R.App. P. 35.

The petition for panel rehearing and the petition for rehearing en banc, filed January 13, 2011, are hereby DENIED. No future petitions for rehearing will be entertained. General Order 5.3(a).

OPINION

BYBEE, Circuit Judge:

Petitioner Pedro Galindo-Romero ("Galindo") seeks review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA") dismissing his appeal of an Immigration Judge's ("IJ") decision terminating his formal *875 removal proceedings. The BIA and IJ held that they lacked jurisdiction over Galindo's removal proceedings, including his application for cancellation of removal, because of an un-reinstated expedited removal order previously issued against Galindo. Galindo argues that the agency's decision to relinquish jurisdiction based on this expedited removal order was error. However, we conclude that we lack jurisdiction to decide the merits of Galindo's petition for review for a different reason: because the decisions of the BIA and IJ resulted in no final order of removal. Accordingly, we dismiss Galindo's petition for review.

I

Galindo is a native and citizen of Mexico. In 1987, he entered the United States illegally and settled in Texas. On March 2, 1998, the former Immigration and Naturalization Service ("INS") issued a Notice to Appear charging Galindo with removability as an alien present in the United States without having been admitted or paroled, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i). He was placed in formal removal proceedings and ordered to appear before an IJ.

On June 26, 1998, Galindo appeared before an IJ, admitted the factual allegations in the Notice to Appear, conceded removability, and sought cancellation of removal or, in the alternative, voluntary departure. Galindo asked for additional time to explore his eligibility for cancellation of removal, and the hearing adjourned. On February 11, 2000, Galindo filed an application for cancellation of removal. Two continuances followed, and Galindo's next hearing was set for March 26, 2001.

In April 2000, while still in removal proceedings with a pending cancellation of removal application, Galindo applied to the former INS for advance parole to leave the United States, claiming that his father, who lived in Mexico at that time, was ill. The INS denied his advance parole application, but Galindo went to Mexico nonetheless. On April 18, 2000, Galindo attempted to reenter the United States by applying for admission at the San Ysidro, California, port of entry, explaining to the immigration officer that he had a pending application for cancellation of removal with an IJ. The immigration officer denied Galindo entry.

On April 23, 2000, Galindo again attempted to reenter the United States, this time by telling the border patrol, falsely, that he was a United States citizen. Again, an immigration officer found Galindo inadmissible and denied his admission application. In support of this denial, the immigration officer found that Galindo had falsely represented himself to be a citizen of the United States, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(C)(ii), and that he was not, at the time of filing his admission application, in possession of a valid entry document, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(7)(A)(i)(I). Accordingly, the immigration officer issued an expedited removal order pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b), and Galindo was summarily removed from the United States.[1]

*876 At some point, Galindo again entered the United States illegally. On March 26, 2001, Galindo appeared before the IJ in his continued removal proceedings and sought to pursue his previously filed application for cancellation of removal. The government provided the IJ with the April 23, 2000, expedited removal order, which the government had not yet reinstated.[2]

On January 6, 2004, after several continuances, the IJ issued an oral decision terminating Galindo's removal proceedings. The IJ held that she had "ha[d] no further jurisdiction to hear [Galindo's] claim on his cancellation of removal," because the INS's April 23, 2000, expedited removal order "t[ook] preference over the Notice to Appear" and the earlier removal proceedings that had been pending before the IJ. The IJ noted that, although the INS had not yet reinstated the expedited removal order following Galindo's most recent return to the United States, "that order would still be valid and outstanding and could, in fact, be reinstated" by the INS. Although the IJ terminated removal proceedings, *877 she did not order Galindo removed, agreeing with Galindo's counsel that she could not "give [Galindo] a removal order and deny the [cancellation of removal] application when there [was] an expedited removal order."

Galindo appealed to the BIA, challenging the IJ's termination of proceedings. The BIA dismissed, holding that Galindo's "appeal relate[d] to matters outside[its] jurisdiction" and providing three reasons for that holding: (1) under 8 C.F.R. § 235.3(b)(2)(ii), the expedited removal order itself was not subject to appellate review by the BIA; (2) under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(a)(5), Galindo was ineligible to pursue any kind of relief from removal, including cancellation of removal, because his "expedited removal order [wa]s subject to reinstatement"; and (3) the BIA "ha[d] no authority to pass judgment on the constitutionality of the Immigration and Nationality Act" or the regulations implementing it. Galindo timely appealed to this court.

II

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Galindo-Romero v. Holder
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Galindo-Romero v. Holder
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Bluebook (online)
621 F.3d 924, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/galindo-romero-v-holder-ca9-2011.