Javier Baeza-Castro v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Javier Baeza-Castro petitions for review of three Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) orders, each denying a motion to reopen removal proceedings because of ineffective assistance of counsel. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 , and we grant the petitions for review of Baeza’s first and second motions to reopen.

Baeza’s first attorney, Nicholas DePen-to, missed the deadline to file an application for cancellation of removal by several weeks. The IJ denied Baeza’s cancellation application on several grounds, including that it was inexcusably untimely. Baeza’s second attorney, Mariana Hanna, successfully appealed the IJ’s determination that Baeza had been convicted of an aggravated felony, which would have otherwise made Baeza ineligible for cancellation under 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(a)(3). However, Hanna failed to appeal the IJ’s finding that the application was untimely, and the BIA affirmed the unchallenged finding that the cancellation application had been abandoned. Following the BIA’s decision, Bae-za was removed from the United States.

Approximately four years later, Baeza, through a third attorney, Jamahl Kersey, filed a motion to reopen the removal…