Chiriboga v. Garland
Chiriboga v. Garland
Opinion
20-3016 Chiriboga v. Garland BIA Barcus, IJ A089 922 638 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 25th day of October, two thousand twenty-one.
PRESENT: JOHN M. WALKER, JR., ROBERT D. SACK, SUSAN L. CARNEY, Circuit Judges. _____________________________________
BORIS ALEJANDRO CHIRIBOGA, Petitioner,
v. No. 20-3016
MERRICK B. GARLAND, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. _____________________________________
FOR PETITIONER: Alexander J. Segal, The Law Offices of Grinberg & Segal, P.L.L.C., New York, NY.
FOR RESPONDENT: Joseph A. O’Connell, Attorney, Office of Immigration Litigation (Cindy S. Ferrier, Assistant Director, on the brief) for Brian M. Boynton, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, 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 DISMISSED.
Petitioner Boris Alejandro Chiriboga, a native and citizen of
Ecuador, seeks review of a 2020 decision of the BIA affirming a
2018 decision of an Immigration Judge (“IJ”) denying his
application for cancellation of removal. Boris Alejandro
Chiriboga, No. A089 922 638 (B.I.A. Aug. 11, 2020), aff’g No. 089
922 638 (Immg. Ct. N.Y. City May 30, 2018). We assume the parties’
familiarity with the underlying facts and procedural history, to
which we refer only as necessary to explain our decision to dismiss
the petition.
We have reviewed the IJ’s decision as supplemented by the
BIA. See Yan Chen v. Gonzales,
417 F.3d 268, 271(2d Cir. 2005).
For a nonpermanent resident such as Chiriboga, the agency may
cancel removal where, as relevant here, the applicant “establishes
that removal would result in exceptional and extremely unusual
hardship to” a qualifying relative. 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b)(1)(D).
Chiriboga’s only qualifying relative for the purpose of this
statute is his youngest daughter, who is a U.S. citizen. Our
jurisdiction to review the denial of cancellation of removal on
2 hardship grounds is limited to constitutional claims and questions
of law. See id. § 1252(a)(2)(B)(i), (D); Barco-Sandoval v.
Gonzales,
516 F.3d 35, 36, 38–40 (2d Cir. 2008). A question of
law may arise where the agency “totally overlooked” or “seriously
mischaracterized” evidence. Mendez v. Holder,
566 F.3d 316, 323(2d Cir. 2009) (per curiam). We dismiss the petition because
Chiriboga’s argument that the agency ignored evidence of financial
hardship is not colorable and he did not exhaust his claim that
the IJ failed to fully develop the record.
Showing “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” is a
heavy burden, requiring an applicant to establish that “qualifying
relatives would suffer hardship that is substantially different
from, or beyond, that which would normally be expected from the
deportation of an alien with close family members here.” Monreal-
Aguinaga,
23 I. & N. Dec. 56, 65(B.I.A. 2001). Chiriboga argues
the agency failed to fully consider evidence of his financial
support to his daughters. His argument does not implicate a
question of law because the record reflects that the IJ and BIA
considered Chiriboga’s testimony that he provided financial
support—primarily a weekly $100 payment to the mother of his
younger daughter—and the record does not indicate that the agency
ignored the letters from his daughters’ mothers confirming that
Chiriboga provides support to his daughters.
3 Moreover, “we presume that an IJ has taken into account all
of the evidence before him, unless the record compellingly suggests
otherwise” and we do not require the IJ to “engage in robotic
incantations to make clear that he has considered and rejected a
petitioner’s proffered explanation.” Xiao Ji Chen v. U.S. Dep’t
of Justice,
471 F.3d 315, 336 n.17 (2d Cir. 2006) (internal
quotation marks omitted). Because the record reflects that the
agency considered the evidence of Chiriboga’s support to his
daughters, we lack jurisdiction to further consider the weight the
agency gave to that evidence. See Argueta v. Holder,
617 F.3d 109, 113(2d Cir. 2010).
Chiriboga also argues that the IJ failed in his obligation to
develop the record by not soliciting additional testimony about
the financial situations of his daughters’ mothers. We do not
reach this issue because Chiriboga did not raise it before the
BIA, and therefore has not exhausted it. See Lin Zhong v. U.S.
Dep’t of Justice,
480 F.3d 104, 123(2d Cir. 2007) (”Consistent
with the strong prudential rationale for requiring all issues
raised on appeal to have been presented below, our circuit applies
an issue exhaustion doctrine to petitions for review from the
BIA.”).
4 For the foregoing reasons, the petition for review is
DISMISSED.
FOR THE COURT: Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe, Clerk of Court
5
Reference
- Status
- Unpublished