Cainto

MEMORANDUM

Bernardo Ojeda Cainto and Maria Rosario Cainto (“Petitioners”) petition for review of the final order of deportation entered by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”). Petitioners were served with orders to show cause (“OSCs”) on October 19, 1995 — less than seven years after Petitioners entered the United States on or about September 5, 1989. At a hearing on March 31, 1997, the Immigration Judge (“IJ”) denied Petitioners’ application for suspension of deportation because they had failed to meet the continuous physical presence requirement before being served with the OSCs and thus were statutorily ineligible for suspension. On appeal, the BIA affirmed.

Petitioners contend that they were eligible for suspension of deportation and challenge the BIA’s decision that the “stop-time rule” — a new continuous physical presence requirement set forth in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (“IIRIRA”)— bars such relief in their case. Moreover, Petitioners contend that the IJ erroneously applied the stop-time rule to their case before IIRIRA’s effective date of April 1, 1997. We agree that the IJ erred in applying the stop-time rule to…