Rubio-Marquez

MEMORANDUM

Pablo Rubio-Marquez, his wife Laura Zamudio De Rubio, and their son Pablo Rubio-Zamudio (“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 (“OSC”) less than seven years after they entered the United States. At a hearing on November 19, 1996, the Immigration Judge 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- *462 time rale”—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 érred in applying the stop-time rule to Petitioners’ case…