Maricela M. Fernandez, Danelia Fernandez Covarrubias v. Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General

Petitioner Maricela Fernandez came to the United States without inspection in 1985. She has two American citizen daughters, Stacey, age 15, and Amy, age 12. The record indicates that Fernandez’s husband, whom she married in Mexico in 1974, is a lawful permanent resident. At her removal hearing in 1998, Fernandez applied for cancellation of removal based on her qualifying relative children. The immigration judge (IJ) denied the application after determining that Fernandez had not shown that the children would be subject to exceptional and extremely unusual hardship if Fernandez were removed. See 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b)(1)(D).

On appeal, the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), applying its streamlining regulation, summarily affirmed without opinion the results of the IJ’s decision. See 8 C.F.R. § 1003.1 (e)(4). Fernandez filed a timely motion to reopen, attaching “additional evidence of hardship, loss of educational opportunities, and loss of acculturation since the time of the[ ] merits hearing over four years ago.” The BIA denied the motion as “insufficient to show prima facie eligibility for cancellation of removal.” Fernandez thereupon filed a timely petition for review of the…