Menendez-Gonzalez

MEMORANDUM1

Luis Hernán Menendez-Gonzalez (“Petitioner”) petitions for review of the final order of deportation entered by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) on June 17, 1999. Petitioner was served with an order to show cause on August 7, 1995, approximately six years and one month after he entered the United States. At a hearing on August 12, 1996, the immigration judge denied his application for suspension of deportation. On appeal, the BIA affirmed on the ground that petitioner had failed to meet the continuous physical presence requirement before being served with the order to show cause and thus was statutorily ineligible for suspension.

Petitioner contends that he was eligible for suspension of deportation and challenges 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, 110 Stat. 3009 -625, bars such relief in his case. Petitioner’s arguments challenging the application of the stop-time rule are foreclosed by our recent decision in Ram v. INS, 243 F.3d 510 (9th Cir.2001). We do not consider his eligibility, if any, for relief under the…