Padgett-Zelaya v. Attorney General of the United States

332 F. App'x 797
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedJune 24, 2009
Docket08-2780
StatusUnpublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 332 F. App'x 797 (Padgett-Zelaya 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
Padgett-Zelaya v. Attorney General of the United States, 332 F. App'x 797 (3d Cir. 2009).

Opinion

OPINION

PER CURIAM.

Tania Supaya Padgett-Zelaya petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA” or “Board”). For the reasons that follow, we will deny the petition.

I.

Padgett is a native and citizen of Honduras. She entered the United States without permission in September 2002. Her U.S.-citizen stepfather filed a visa petition on her behalf. In removal proceedings, an Immigration Judge (“IJ”) found her removable as charged, but granted her adjustment of status under INA § 245® [8 U.S.C. § 1255® ], despite evidence that Honduras had issued a warrant for her arrest for murder. 1 Based on testimony and statements in the State Department’s Country Report for Honduras, the IJ determined that the arrest warrant was “issued under dubious circumstances by a foreign government which corrupts its judiciary and has little regard for the due process of its citizens under arrest.” The IJ determined that the existence of the warrant did not compel him to deny the adjustment application as a matter of discretion. The IJ also noted as potential negative factors that Padgett had an unlawful entry and had used a fake social security number for employment, but determined that those factors were present in “a substantial majority of adjustment cases,” and therefore did not accord those factors great weight.

*799 The Government appealed. In a decision dated June 3, 2008, the Board sustained the appeal, finding that adverse factors outweighed the equities. The BIA noted positive equities, such as established family ties in the United States, residence for over five years, and a U.S. citizen fiancé. However, the BIA found those factors outweighed because of the warrant for her arrest for murder, the fact that she had been in the U.S. illegally for more than 5 years, and the fact that she had knowingly obtained employment via a false social security number. The BIA reversed the IJ’s grant of adjustment of status and ordered Padgett removed to Honduras.

About a month before the BIA’s order, Padgett, through counsel, had filed a “Motion to Consider New Evidence or in the Alternative to Remand to the Immigration Judge” (“Remand Motion”). A.R. 57. The motion included three attached documents; one from Padgett’s attorney in Honduras, one from the Honduran Prosecutor, and one from the Honduran judge who had previously issued the warrant for murder. The documents from the prosecutor and the judge stated that the warrant for murder was issued in mistake, and instead, the warrant should have been for the crime of “concealment of murder.” The letter from the attorney stated that the Honduran government had not provided him with any evidence that would show his client was involved in “concealment of murder.”

After the BIA issued its decision, Pad-gett filed a motion to reopen or reconsider, A.R. 27; noting that the BIA had failed to mention the Remand Motion and failed to consider its impact. The Government filed a response in opposition to the motion. A.R. 48. On July 10, 2008, the BIA denied the motion, acknowledging its “apparent factual error in failing to recognize the respondent’s ‘new’ evidence that was submitted prior to the issuance of our June 3, 2008 decision,” but finding that Padgett had failed to show any legal error in the Board’s previous decision. The Board also stated that evidence that Padgett was only wanted for concealment of murder was “not responsive to the full breadth of the reasoning cited in our previous detailed decision.” The BIA noted that the previous decision was based not only on the warrant, but also on the fact that Padgett had been in the country illegally for 5 years and that she had used a false social security number. The BIA determined that the new information was not “sufficiently material to her claim to warrant a remand.” A.R. 2.

Padgett filed a timely, counseled petition for review of the June 3, 2008 decision. She did not file a petition for review of the July 10, 2008 decision. The Government filed a motion to dismiss and a renewed motion to dismiss, both of which Padgett opposed. A motions panel referred those motions to the merits panel, and also granted Padgett’s motion for a stay of removal.

II.

Because Padgett did not file a petition for review of the July 10, 2008 decision, we may only review the Board’s June 3, 2008 decision. See Nocon v. I.N.S., 789 F.2d 1028, 1032-33 (3d Cir.1986) (final deportation orders and orders denying motions to reconsider are independently reviewable; a timely petition for review must be filed with respect to the specific order sought to be reviewed).

The Government argues that pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(B) we lack jurisdiction to review the June 3, 2008 decision, because the BIA denied Padgett adjustment of status as a matter of discretion. Under § 1252(a)(2)(B)(i), courts are stripped of jurisdiction to review “any judgment regarding the granting of relief *800 under section ... 1255 ... of this title.” However, under the REAL ID Act of 2005, our jurisdiction has been expanded to include “constitutional claims or questions of law raised upon a petition for review” notwithstanding the jurisdictional limitations of § 1252(a)(2)(B). 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(D); Papageorgiou v. Gonzales, 413 F.3d 356, 357-58 (3d Cir.2005).

We discern two issues raised by Padgett that we have jurisdiction to review: (1) the BIA violated its regulations by not granting her unopposed Remand Motion; and (2) the BIA considered improper factors in denying her motion for adjustment of status. 2 We will consider the arguments in turn.

III.

Padgett argues that because the Government did not timely respond to her Remand Motion, it should have been deemed unopposed pursuant to 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(g). We agree. However, she then goes on to conclude that because the motion was unopposed, it should have been granted. We cannot agree with her conclusion. In Sevoian v. Ashcroft, 290 F.3d 166, 173 (3d Cir.2002), we stated that “[n]o statute or regulation creates any circumstance in which a motion to reopen must be granted,” and that the Board thus retains discretion to grant or deny such motions. The same is true for motions to remand. Padgett points to no statute or regulation that requires that an unopposed motion be granted. Her argument is without merit.

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Related

Padgett-Zelaya v. Attorney General of the United States
353 F. App'x 685 (Third Circuit, 2009)

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