Pantaleon Castro v. Loretta E. Lynch

MEMORANDUM

Pantaleon Castro, a native and citizen of Guatemala, petitions pro se for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ order summarily affirming an immigration judge’s order denying his motion to reopen removal proceedings. Our jurisdiction is governed by 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We review for abuse of discretion the denial of a motion to reopen. Lin v. Holder, 588 F.3d 981, 984 (9th Cir. 2009). We deny in part and dismiss in part the petition for review.

The agency did not abuse its discretion in denying Castro’s motion to reopen as untimely, where the motion was filed more than sixteen years after his final order of removal, see 8 C.F.R. § 1003.23 (b)(1), he has not demonstrated that he warrants equitable tolling of the filing deadline, see Avagyan v. Holder, 646 F.3d 672, 679 (9th Cir. 2011) (equitable tolling is available to an alien who is prevented from filing a motion to reopen due to deception, fraud, dr error, as long as the alien exercises due diligence in discovering such circumstances), and he failed to present sufficient evidence of changed country conditions in Guatemala to qualify for the regulatory exception to the filing deadline, see 8 C.F.R. § 1003.23…