Maldonaldo-Galindo

I. BACKGROUND

Maldonado is a citizen of Mexico and has been a lawful permanent resident of the United States from the age of one. In 1991, Maldonado was convicted of two unidentified crimes involving moral turpitude which rendered him deportable. INS subsequently commenced deportation proceedings, and Maldonado applied for suspension of deportation under for- mer § 212(c) of the INA. As then constituted, § 212(c) vested the Attorney General with discretion to admit an otherwise deportable alien who had a “lawful unrelinquished domicile of seven consecutive years” in the United States, provided that the alien had not been convicted of an aggravated felony with a term of imprisonment of more than five years. 8 U.S.C. § 1182(c) (repealed 1996). Maldonado qualified for such relief, and was granted a waiver of inadmissibility in January 1996.

On September 30, 1996, Congress enacted IIRIRA which, inter alia, eliminated § 212(c) relief, and provided instead for cancellation of removal under § 240A. Under the new statu- tory scheme, § 240A(c)(6) cancellation of removal is unavail- able to

An alien whose removal has previously been cancel- led under this section or whose deportation…