Alma Delia Jimenez-Angeles v. John Ashcroft, Attorney General

Alma Delia Jimenez-Angeles entered the United States illegally from Mexico on March 6, 1990. Sometime in March 1997, prior to the April 1, 1997 effective date of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, PL 104-208 Div. C, 110 Stat. 3009 (1996) (“IIRIRA”), she presented herself to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”) hoping to avail herself of the pre-IIRIRA remedy of suspension of deportation. If the INS had commenced deportation proceedings prior to April 1, 1997, she would have been eligible for suspension of deportation. Instead, the INS did not commence proceedings (now called “removal” proceedings under IIRIRA) against her until November 1998. An Immigration Judge (“U”) found Jimenez-Angeles removable, and the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirmed the order. Jimenez-Angeles now petitions this court for review. Because we hold that Jimenez-Angeles’ case is governed by IIRIRA’s permanent rules, and because we hold that those rules are not impermissibly retroactive when applied to her, we deny the petition.

I

After entering the United States illegally, Jimenez-Angeles and her husband settled in the Los Angeles area. They…