Pacheco

MEMORANDUM **

I.

Maria Pacheco’s lawful residence in the United States was predicated on her Temporary Protected Status (“TPS”) as a Salvadoran alien pursuant to § 303 of the 1990 Immigration Act. See Immigration Act of 1990, Pub.L. No. 101-649, § 303 , 104 Stat. 4978 , 5036 (1990) (reprinted at 8 U.S.C. § 1254a (notes)). Section 303 required that Salvadoran aliens who wished to travel abroad first obtain advance parole from the Attorney General. See § 303(c)(2), (4). Pacheco failed to obtain such parole when, on September 3, 1992, she left for El Salvador to visit her dying mother and to arrange for the care of her three minor children. As a result, she did not present a valid reentry document pursuant to § 303 upon her return to the U.S. The INS then initiated exclusion proceedings.

II.

In the proceedings before the Immigration Judge (“U”), Pacheco admitted ex-cludability, but argued that she should have been readmitted in her original TPS status because § 303, as applied to her, violated her constitutional right to equal protection. Lacking jurisdiction over the constitutional claim, the IJ refused to entertain that argument and ordered her excluded for failure to obtain…