Latu

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

IKUVALU MOLOU LATU, 

Petitioner, No. 05-75889 v.  Agency No.

A46-960-902

MICHAEL B. MUKASEY, Attorney General, OPINION Respondent.  On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals

Argued and Submitted November 2, 2007 Honolulu, Hawaii Submission Vacated and Deferred November 6, 2007 Resubmitted April 18, 2008

Filed November 3, 2008

Before: Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, A. Wallace Tashima, and Milan D. Smith, Jr., Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Tashima; Dissent by Judge O’Scannlain

15019 15022 LATU v. MUKASEY

COUNSEL

Ramon J. Ferrer, Wailuku, Hawaii, for the petitioner.

Kathryn L. Moore, Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for the respondent.

OPINION

TASHIMA, Circuit Judge:

Ikuvalu Latu, a native and citizen of Tonga, petitions for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“Board” or “BIA”), dismissing his appeal from an order of an Immigration Judge (“IJ”). The IJ found Latu removable pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(i)…