Martinez
Martinez v. Immigration & Naturalization Service
Opinion
Lead Opinion
MEMORANDUM **
Uriel Martinez petitions for review of the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) that he was not eligible for suspension of deportation pursuant to former 8 U.S.C. § 1254 (a)(1) because he failed to meet its requirement of seven years of continuous residence. 1 He challenges the BIA’s application of the new “stop-time” rule that came into effect while his appeal to the BIA was pending. We deny the petition for review.
Martinez first entered the United States in either 1976 or 1981. At some time between 1984 and 1989, he left the United States for Mexico. He returned to the United States in April 1989.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”) served Martinez with an Order to Show Cause in August 1994. In June 1996, Martinez admitted deportability before an Immigration Judge (“IJ”) and petitioned for suspension of deportation. Counting back to the 1989 entry, the IJ found that Martinez had met the time requirement of seven years of continuous physical presence in the United States pri- or to his petition for suspension of deportation. The IJ denied the petition on other grounds. Martinez appealed to the BIA.