Zheng v. Garland

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

Zheng v. Garland

Opinion

19-2923 Zheng v. Garland BIA A209 127 618 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.

1 At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals 2 for the Second Circuit, held at the Thurgood Marshall 3 United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, in the City of 4 New York, on the 17th day of August, two thousand twenty- 5 one. 6 7 PRESENT: 8 DEBRA ANN LIVINGSTON, 9 Chief Judge, 10 GUIDO CALABRESI, 11 RICHARD J. SULLIVAN, 12 Circuit Judges. 13 _____________________________________ 14 15 HAI QIN ZHENG, 16 Petitioner, 17 18 v. 19-2923 19 NAC 20 MERRICK B. GARLAND, UNITED 21 STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL, 22 Respondent. 23 _____________________________________ 24 25 FOR PETITIONER: Richard Tarzia, Esq., Belle Mead, 26 NJ. 27 28 FOR RESPONDENT: Joseph H. Hunt, Assistant Attorney 29 General; Shelley R. Goad, 1 Assistant Director; Elizabeth R. 2 Chapman, Trial Attorney, Office of 3 Immigration Litigation, United 4 States Department of Justice, 5 Washington, DC.

6 UPON DUE CONSIDERATION of this petition for review of a

7 Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) decision, it is hereby

8 ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the petition for review

9 is DENIED.

10 Petitioner Hai Qin Zheng, a native and citizen of the

11 People’s Republic of China, seeks review of an August 29,

12 2019, decision of the BIA denying her motion to reopen and

13 terminate her removal proceedings. In re Hai Qin Zheng, No.

14 A 209 127 618 (B.I.A. Aug. 29, 2019). We assume the parties’

15 familiarity with the underlying facts and procedural history.

16 We review the BIA’s denial of a motion to reopen for

17 abuse of discretion. See Zhao Quan Chen v. Gonzales, 492

18 F.3d 153, 154

(2d Cir. 2007). The BIA abuses its discretion

19 if its “decision provides no rational explanation,

20 inexplicably departs from established policies, is devoid of

21 any reasoning, or contains only summary or conclusory

22 statements; that is to say, where the Board has acted in an

23 arbitrary or capricious manner.” Kaur v. BIA,

413 F.3d 232

,

24 233-34 (2d Cir. 2005) (internal quotation marks omitted). 2 1 The BIA did not abuse its discretion here. Zheng argued

2 that, under Pereira v. Sessions,

138 S. Ct. 2105, 2114

(2018),

3 the immigration court lacked jurisdiction over her removal

4 proceedings because her notice to appear (“NTA”) did not

5 include the date and time of her initial hearing. In Pereira,

6 the Supreme Court held that an NTA that fails to designate

7 the time or place of an initial hearing in removal proceeding

8 does not trigger the stop-time rule ending the noncitizen’s

9 period of continuous presence for purposes of cancellation of

10 removal. 138 S. Ct. at 2113–20; see also Niz-Chavez v.

11 Garland,

141 S. Ct. 1474

(2021) (holding that an NTA that

12 omits statutorily required information is not cured for

13 purposes of the stop-time rule by a subsequent notice that

14 contains the missing information). Zheng did not apply for

15 cancellation of removal, but instead argues that Pereira also

16 renders such an NTA inadequate to vest jurisdiction in the

17 immigration court. Zheng’s argument is foreclosed by Banegas

18 Gomez v. Barr,

922 F.3d 101

(2d Cir. 2019), which holds that

19 an NTA that omits the date and time of the hearing is adequate

20 to vest jurisdiction in the immigration court if the

21 noncitizen was sent a subsequent hearing notice with the

3 1 missing information,

id.

at 110–12. See also Niz-Chavez, 141

2 S. Ct. at 1479–84 (like Pereira, addressing only the stop-

3 time rule and not questioning the immigration court’s

4 jurisdiction over removal proceedings commenced by an

5 incomplete NTA). Zheng received notice of her hearings and

6 appeared at them.

7 For the foregoing reasons, the petition for review is

8 DENIED. All pending motions and applications are DENIED and

9 stays VACATED.

10 FOR THE COURT: 11 Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe, 12 Clerk of Court 13

4

Reference

Status
Unpublished