Grant

MEMORANDUM **

Calvin Grant, a citizen of Belize, petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) denying cancellation of removal under § 304(a) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (“IIRIRA”), 8 U.S.C. § 1229b.

The BIA properly held that Grant was ineligible for cancellation of removal because he failed (by one or two months) to meet the ten-year continuous residence requirement of IIRIRA, 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b)(l)(A). Grant argues that he should be allowed to apply for suspension of deportation under pre-IIRIRA procedures, which required only seven years of continuous residence. See 8 U.S.C. § 1254 (1994). But Grant’s removal proceedings were commenced by service of a notice to appear after the effective date of IIRIRA, April 1, 1997. Under IIRIRA, suspension of deportation was replaced by cancellation of removal, with its ten-year residence requirement, and the ten years ceases to accrue once a notice to appear is served. See Jimenez-Angeles v. Ashcroft, 291 F.3d 594, 597-98 (9th Cir.2002).

Grant points out that, prior to the effective date of IIRIRA, he would have qualified under the previous seven-year…