Solis-Espinoza

I. BACKGROUND

Solis-Espinoza was born in Tijuana, Mexico in 1967. He was raised in the United States by his biological father, Refugio Solis, a Mexican citizen and lawful permanent resi- dent of the United States, and his father’s wife, Stella Cruz- Dominguez, a natural-born United States citizen. Solis and Cruz-Dominguez were married at the time of Solis- Espinoza’s birth. Solis-Espinoza’s biological mother was Maria Luisa Cardoza, a Mexican citizen, who abandoned him. Cruz-Dominguez accepted the infant as her own child, and the couple raised him to adulthood as part of their family. Indeed, Cruz-Dominguez is listed as Solis-Espinoza’s mother on his birth certificate, although petitioner concedes that she is not his biological mother. SOLIS-ESPINOZA v. GONZALES 3571 In 2001, when he was 33 years old, Solis-Espinoza was convicted in California state court of a felony, possession of methamphetamine for sale. The Immigration and Naturaliza- tion Service then charged Solis-Espinoza as removable from the United States as an alien convicted of an aggravated fel- ony, under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii).

The Immigration Judge (“IJ”) originally determined that…