Rodriguez-Sanchez

MEMORANDUM

Roberto Rodriguez-Sanchez (“Rodriguez”) petitions for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), which denied his petition because he failed to meet the April 26, 2005, filing deadline for a special motion to reopen under 8 C.F.R. § 1003.44 . Rodriguez raises two grounds for error: one explicitly, the other implicitly. First, Rodriguez argues that the April 26, 2005, deadline set by statute for special motions to reopen under the Supreme Court’s opinion in INS v. St Cyr, 533 U.S. 289 , 121 S.Ct. 2271 , 150 L.Ed.2d 347 (2001), should not apply because the deadline violates “the spirit of St. Cyr.” Second, Rodriguez implicitly argues that he is entitled to equitable tolling of the deadline. For the reasons set forth here, as well as in our opinion in Tapia-Luna v. Holder, 659 F.3d 753 , 2011 WL 4359843 (9th Cir.2011), which is filed simultaneously with this memorandum disposition, we deny the petition.

There is no dispute that Rodriguez missed the April 26, 2005 filing deadline for special motions to reopen by fifteen months. Instead, Rodriguez contends that, while he was competently represented by counsel in his removal proceedings in 1996 and…