Saldana

MEMORANDUM ***

Petitioner Reyna Saldana (“Saldana”) seeks review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), dismissing her appeal of the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of her motion to rescind an in absentia deportation order and to reopen deportation proceedings to apply for suspension of deportation.

Saldana contends that she failed to be present at her deportation hearing because her attorney advised her that “her case was over and she need not appear for the hearing.” Saldana’s claim of exceptional circumstances is therefore based on ineffective assistance of counsel. She did not comply, however, with the threshold requirements of Matter of Lozada, 191 I. & N. Dec. 687 , 639, 1988 WL 235454 (BIA 1988), when submitting this claim to the IJ. Saldana did substantially comply with those requirements when her case was before the BIA, but the BIA nevertheless dismissed her appeal.

That decision was not an abuse of discretion. Saldana’s motion to reopen alleges only that her attorney told her not to worry about continuing with her asylum application. Her allegations, even if accepted as true, do not provide sufficient cause for her failure to appear at the later…