Ronnie Tababa v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Ronnie Galas Tababa seeks review of a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) upholding a finding by an Immigration Judge (IJ) that he was removable as an alien convicted of an aggravated felony due to his Hawaii conviction for sexual assault in the third degree. Ta-baba asserts that the record of conviction is insufficient to establish that he was convicted of the aggravated felony offense of sexual abuse of a minor. Because Tababa failed to raise this argument before the BIA, we dismiss the petition.

1. “We lack jurisdiction to review legal claims not presented in an alien’s administrative proceedings before the BIA.” Tijani v. Holder, 628 F.3d 1071, 1080 (9th Cir.2010); see also Barron v. Ashcroft, 358 F.3d 674, 678 (9th Cir.2004). Here, the sole argument set forth in Taba-ba’s brief is that the record of his Hawaii conviction is insufficient to establish that he was convicted of the aggravated felony offense of sexual abuse of a minor. However, Tababa’s appeal to the BIA sought humanitarian relief and did not question the sufficiency of his Hawaii conviction. Moreover, before the IJ, Tababa did not deny that he had been convicted of sexual abuse of a…