Fuentes

MEMORANDUM

Rafael Fuentes (“Petitioner”) petitions for review of the final order of deportation entered by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) on November 30, 1999. Petitioner was served with an order to show cause (“OSC”) on June 27, 1994 — approximately six years and three months after he entered the United States. At a hearing on October 28, 1996, the Immigration Judge (“IJ”) 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 (“IIRIRA”)— *650 bars such relief in his case. Moreover, Petitioner contends that the IJ erroneously applied the stop-time rule to his case on October 28, 1996, five months before IIRIRA’s effective date of April 1, 1997. We agree that the IJ erred in applying the stop-time rule to…