Valenzuela Garcia v. Holder

MEMORANDUM

Maria Valenzuela Garcia, a native and citizen of Mexico, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) dismissal of her appeal from an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of her application for cancellation of removal or, alternatively, voluntary departure. The scope of our jurisdiction is governed by 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We dismiss the petition for review.

1. Valenzuela Garcia first contends . that the offense of which she was convicted, a violation of Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code § 10980 (c)(2), was not a crime involving moral turpitude (“CIMT”) that rendered her ineligible for cancellation of removal. Valenzuela Garcia exhausted her administrative remedies with respect to this claim. Although she did not mention the issue in her appeal to the BIA, the BIA still addressed it. That satisfied the exhaustion requirement. See Kin v. Holder, 595 F.3d 1050, 1055 (9th Cir.2010).

On the merits, however, Valenzuela Garcia’s argument is foreclosed by our decision in Ferreira v. Ashcroft, 390 F.3d 1091 (9th Cir.2004), abrogated on other grounds by Nijhawan v. Holder, 557 U.S. 29 , 129 S.Ct. 2294, 2302-03 , 174 L.Ed.2d 22 (2009). In Ferreira , we held that the same…