Chen v. Barr
Chen v. Barr
Opinion
19-2658 Chen v. Barr BIA A076 506 357
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
SUMMARY ORDER RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT=S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY CITING TO A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL.
At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, in the City of New York, on the 22nd day of December, two thousand twenty.
PRESENT: JON O. NEWMAN, REENA RAGGI, RAYMOND J. LOHIER, JR., Circuit Judges. _____________________________________
XING YING CHEN, Petitioner,
v. 19-2658 NAC WILLIAM P. BARR, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. _____________________________________
FOR PETITIONER: Richard Tarzia, Belle Mead, NJ.
FOR RESPONDENT: Jeffrey Bossert Clark, Acting Assistant Attorney General; Anthony C. Payne, Assistant Director; Judith R. O’Sullivan, Trial Attorney, Office of Immigration Litigation, United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC. UPON DUE CONSIDERATION of this petition for review of a
Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) decision, it is hereby
ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the petition for review
is DENIED.
Petitioner Xing Ying Chen, a native and citizen of the
People’s Republic of China, seeks review of an August 5, 2019,
decision of the BIA denying his second motion to reopen. In
re Xing Ying Chen, No. A076 506 357 (B.I.A. Aug. 5, 2019).
We assume the parties’ familiarity with the underlying facts
and procedural history.
We review the BIA’s denial of a motion to reopen for
abuse of discretion. See Jian Hui Shao v. Mukasey,
546 F.3d 138, 168-69(2d Cir. 2008). Before the BIA, Chen moved to
reopen and terminate his removal proceedings, arguing that
the time limit for filing his motion should be excused and
that his notice to appear (“NTA”) was insufficient to commence
removal proceedings under the Supreme Court’s decision in
Pereira v. Sessions,
138 S. Ct. 2105(2018), because it did
not contain a hearing date or time.
It is undisputed that Chen’s 2018 motion to reopen was
untimely and number barred because it was his second motion 2 filed more than 15 years after his removal order became final
in 2003. See 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(c)(7)(A), (C)(i);
8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c)(2). Chen argues that the BIA should have excused
the time limit given the intervening decision in Pereira.
Chen’s Pereira argument is without merit, and the BIA did not
err in declining either to excuse the time limitation based
on that decision or to exercise its authority to reopen sua
sponte. See
8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c)(3) (listing exceptions to
the time limitation); Mahmood v. Holder,
570 F.3d 466, 469(2d Cir. 2009) (an untimely motion may be considered under
the agency’s sua sponte authority, but we lack jurisdiction
to review such decision other than to remand if the agency
misperceived the law).
In Pereira, the Supreme Court held that the Immigration
and Nationality Act unambiguously requires an NTA to include
a hearing time and place to trigger the “stop-time rule,” 138
S. Ct. at 2113–20, which cuts off a noncitizen’s accrual of
physical presence or residence for the purposes of
cancellation of removal, see 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(a), (b),
(d)(1). Chen does not challenge his accrual of physical
presence, but instead argues that his NTA, which omitted the 3 hearing information, was insufficient to vest the immigration
court with jurisdiction over his removal proceedings. We
have rejected this argument. Pereira addresses a narrow
question regarding the stop-time rule and does not “void
jurisdiction in cases in which an NTA omits a hearing time or
place.” Banegas Gomez v. Barr,
922 F.3d 101, 110(2d Cir.
2019). The regulation vesting jurisdiction does not require
an NTA to specify the time and date of the initial hearing,
“at least so long as a notice of hearing specifying this
information is later sent to the alien.”
Id. at 112.
Although Chen’s 2000 NTA did not specify the date and
time of his initial hearing, he unquestionably received
notice of his hearings at which he appeared. Therefore,
Chen’s argument is foreclosed by Banegas Gomez,
922 F.3d at 110, 112.
For the foregoing reasons, the petition for review is
DENIED. All pending motions and applications are DENIED and
stays VACATED.
FOR THE COURT: Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe, Clerk of Court
4
Reference
- Status
- Unpublished