Sergio Fajardo Sotelo Prisca Ramirez Aleman Yadira Betzave Fajardo Aleman v. Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General

Petitioners challenge the Board of Immigration Appeals’ denial of their motion to reopen deportation proceedings. Their motion was made in an attempt to avail themselves of the class action settlement approved in Barahona-Gomez v. Ashcroft, 243 F.Supp.2d 1029 (N.D.Cal.2002). That settlement permitted eligible immigrants to apply for suspension of deportation under the law as it existed prior to the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, Pub.L. No. 104-208, 110 Stat. 3009 (1996), as amended by Pub.L. No. 104-302, 110 Stat. 3656 (1996). Unfortunately for petitioners, they are not Barahonar-Gomez class members and therefore not entitled to the relief they seek. The BIA did not err in denying their motion to reopen.

I

Petitioners Sergio Fajardo Sotelo, his wife Prisea Ramirez Aleman, and their daughter Yadira Betzave Fajardo Aleman, all natives and citizens of Mexico, entered the United States without inspection in August 1989. Less than six years later, on March 10, 1995, they were served with an Order to Show Cause and charged with entering the country without inspection. Deportation proceedings were commenced against them. Petitioners conceded…