Luis Perez-Camacho v. Merrick Garland

42 F.4th 1103
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedAugust 1, 2022
Docket19-72063
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 42 F.4th 1103 (Luis Perez-Camacho v. Merrick Garland) 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
Luis Perez-Camacho v. Merrick Garland, 42 F.4th 1103 (9th Cir. 2022).

Opinion

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

LUIS PEREZ-CAMACHO, No. 19-72063 Petitioner, Agency No. v. A038-974-117

MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, OPINION Respondent.

On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals

Argued and Submitted March 11, 2022 Pasadena, California

Filed August 1, 2022

Before: Sandra S. Ikuta, Kenneth K. Lee, and Danielle J. Forrest, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Ikuta 2 PEREZ-CAMACHO V. GARLAND

SUMMARY*

Immigration

Denying in part and dismissing in part Luis Perez- Camacho’s petition for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals, the panel concluded that the BIA did not err in denying Perez-Camacho’s motion to reopen, which challenged his removal order on the ground that his underlying conviction was allegedly invalid.

In 2005, Perez-Camacho, a lawful permanent resident, was ordered removed based on a 1997 conviction. He then filed a motion to reopen, which was denied. In 2018, he filed a second motion to reopen, claiming that he was no longer removable as charged because a state court, in 2018, had modified his conviction due to a “constitutional defect” in his criminal proceeding. Perez-Camacho argued that his removal order was invalid, and therefore, the BIA should reopen proceedings, set aside his removal order, and terminate proceedings. The BIA denied the motion as both number- barred (because an alien may file only one motion to reopen) and time-barred (because a motion to reopen must be filed within 90 days of a final order of removal). The BIA also held that equitable tolling was not available and that sua sponte reopening was not warranted.

The panel concluded that none of the circumstances in which an alien may challenge a removal order based on the claim that a conviction underlying a removal order is invalid

* This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader. PEREZ-CAMACHO V. GARLAND 3

were applicable here. First, the BIA’s authority to consider such a challenge when the alien brings a motion to reopen that is not time- or number-barred was not implicated here. Next, Perez-Camacho could not raise arguments that are available for an alien challenging a reinstatement proceeding or reinstatement order. The panel explained that an alien challenging reinstatement may show that he suffered a gross miscarriage of justice on the ground that an underlying conviction was invalid due to a merits-based defect, and would not be required to show due diligence. In contrast, Perez-Camacho’s removal order had not been reinstated and his challenge to his removal order was subject to the regulatory number and time bar for motions to reopen. The panel further explained that Perez-Camacho did not argue to the BIA that his motion met any regulatory exception to the time and number bar, and any such argument was unexhausted.

The panel also concluded that the BIA did not abuse its discretion in deciding that equitable tolling of the time and number bar was not available to Perez-Camacho, explaining that he waited 21 years to seek modification of his conviction, provided no basis as to his reasonable efforts to pursue relief during that period, and provided no explanation for such an exceedingly long delay.

Finally, the panel concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to consider whether the BIA erred in denying Perez-Camacho’s request to sua sponte reopen proceedings, because the BIA committed no legal or constitutional error in determining that his 1997 conviction was not vacated due to a merits-based defect. 4 PEREZ-CAMACHO V. GARLAND

COUNSEL

Douglas Jalaie (argued), Los Angeles, California, for Petitioner.

Rachel L. Browning (argued), Trial Attorney; Keith I. McManus, Assistant Director; Ethan P. Davis, Acting Assistant Attorney General; Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.; for Respondent.

OPINION

IKUTA, Circuit Judge:

There are various circumstances in which an alien may challenge a removal order on the ground that the conviction underlying the removal order was subsequently vacated (or modified) due to a procedural or substantive error. For instance, an alien may raise such a challenge in a timely motion to reopen, in a challenge to a reinstatement order or proceeding, or in an untimely motion to reopen if it is eligible for equitable tolling. Because the alien in this case brought a time- and number-barred motion to reopen that is not subject to equitable tolling, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) did not err in denying his challenge to the removal order on the ground that the underlying conviction was allegedly invalid.

I

Luis Perez-Camacho, a native and citizen of Mexico, was admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident PEREZ-CAMACHO V. GARLAND 5

in 1985. In 1997, Perez-Camacho pleaded guilty to one count of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse in violation of section 273.5(a) of the California Penal Code. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) served Perez- Camacho with a notice to appear (NTA), charging him with being removable under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(E)(i) as an alien “convicted of a crime of domestic violence” after admission.

Perez-Camacho’s removal hearing had been scheduled for April 2005, but was rescheduled to June 1, 2005. Perez- Camacho failed to appear and was ordered removed in absentia. In August 2005, Perez-Camacho filed a motion to reopen, which was denied.

In September 2018, Perez-Camacho filed a second motion to reopen. Perez-Camacho claimed the immigration judge (IJ) lacked jurisdiction over his case under Pereira v. Sessions, 138 S. Ct. 2105 (2018), because his 2005 notice to appear did not contain the date or time of his hearing. Perez- Camacho also claimed that the decision in Pereira constituted an extraordinary circumstance that prevented him from timely filing a motion to reopen, despite his reasonable diligence. Therefore, he requested equitable tolling of the motion to reopen deadline. In the alternative, he requested that the BIA sua sponte reopen his removal proceedings.

While his second motion to reopen was pending, Perez- Camacho submitted a supplemental brief to the BIA which claimed that he was no longer removable as charged in 2005 because a state court had modified his 1997 conviction due to a “constitutional defect” in the criminal proceedings. In support of this argument, Perez-Camacho attached a computer printout of state court minutes, dated November 2, 6 PEREZ-CAMACHO V. GARLAND

2018.1 According to Perez-Camacho, the state court amended the original complaint against Perez-Camacho to add a second count, the offense of domestic battery under section 243(e)(1) of the California Penal Code. The court then dismissed Count 1 (the original violation of section 273.5(a), inflicting corporal injury on a spouse), and accepted Perez- Camacho’s plea of no contest to Count 2. The state court took this action based on a stipulation by the parties that the district attorney would have accepted a guilty plea to domestic battery under section 243(e)(1) in 1997 if defense counsel had offered it. In his supplemental brief, Perez- Camacho argued that the stipulation established that his defense counsel rendered ineffective assistance resulting in a conviction for violating section 273.5(a), which made him removable under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(E)(i). In Perez- Camacho’s view, absent defense counsel’s ineffective

1 The printout stated, in pertinent part:

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42 F.4th 1103, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/luis-perez-camacho-v-merrick-garland-ca9-2022.