Montes-Lepe

MEMORANDUM1

Juan Pablo Montes-Lepe (“petitioner”) petitions for review of the final order of deportation entered by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) on July 30, 1999. Petitioner was served with an order to show cause (“OSC”) on August 11, 1994, approximately four years and ten months after he alleges he entered the United States. At a hearing on April 14, 1997, the immigration judge denied petitioner’s application for suspension of deportation because he had failed to meet the continuous physical presence requirement before being served with the OSC and thus was statutorily ineligible for suspension. On appeal, the BIA affirmed.

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 Petitioner’s eligibility, if any, for relief under the class…