Garcia De Ruiz v. Holder

MEMORANDUM

Olga Clarissa Garcia de Ruiz petitions this court for review of the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals affirming the Immigration Judge’s denial of her motion to reopen her deportation proceedings. The Immigration Judge denied the motion on three grounds. First, the evidence of U.S. citizenship Garcia sought to submit in the reopened proceedings, con trary to the requirement of 8 C.F.R. § 1003.23 (b)(3), was available and could have been discovered or presented at the former hearing. Second, Garcia’s evidence of U.S. citizenship was unreliable and was rebutted by the government’s evidence that Garcia was born in Mexico. Third, 8 C.F.R. § 1003.23 (b)(1) jurisdictionally bars an immigration court from reopening removal proceedings “where th[e] alien departed the United States pursuant to a final administrative order.” See § 1003.23(b)(1) (“A motion to reopen or to reconsider shall not be made by or on behalf of a person who is the subject of removal, deportation, or exclusion proceedings subsequent to his or her departure from the United States.”).

The Board of Immigration Appeals relied solely on the third ground in affirming the Immigration Judge’s decision.…