Bao Hua Dong v. Ashcroft

MEMORANDUM ***

Bao-Hua Dong (“Petitioner”) seeks review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) dismissal of her appeal as untimely and its denial of her consolidated motions to reconsider that decision. We deny the petition for review.

The Immigration Judge (“IJ”) denied Dong’s petition for asylum on October 4, 1999. Petitioner’s notice of appeal to the BIA was filed on November 29, 2000. The BIA dismissed Petitioner’s appeal because it was untimely and Petitioner had failed to explain adequately the one-year delay. Petitioner filed two motions for reconsideration which were dismissed by the BIA.

(1) The time limit for filing a Notice of Appeal with the BIA, like the time limit for filing petitions for review in this court, is mandatory and jurisdictional. Da Cruz v. INS, 4 F.3d 721, 722 (9th Cir.1993). Mandatory and jurisdictional time limits are “not subject to the defenses of waiver, equitable tolling, or equitable estoppel, although there may still be exceptions based on unique circumstances.” Socop-Gonzalez v. INS, 272 F.3d 1176, 1188 (9th Cir.2001) (internal quotations omitted). The only circumstances deemed thus far to be “unique” in this or analogous contexts are…