Munoz-Merida

MEMORANDUM

Elidía Cristina Munoz-Merida (“Petitioner”) petitions for review of the final order of deportation entered by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) on June 28, 2000. Petitioner was served with an order to show cause (“OSC”) on August 30, 1996, less than seven years after she entered the United States on or about October 20, 1990. On November 6, 1997, an Immigration Judge ordered her deported as charged in the OSC. Petitioner moved to reopen proceedings in order to apply for suspension of deportation. The Immigration Judge denied the motion on February 4, 1998, because the Petitioner had failed to meet the continuous physical presence requirement before being served with the OSC and thus was statutorily ineligible for suspension. The BIA dismissed the appeal.

Petitioner contends that she is 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 relief in her case. Petitioner’s arguments are foreclosed by our recent decision in Ram v. INS, 243 F.3d 510 (9th…