Raul Estrada-Alvarez v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Raul Estrada-Alvarez and family, natives and citizens of Mexico, petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) order denying their motion to reopen. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We review for abuse of discretion the denial of a motion to reopen, Mohammed v. Gonzales, 400 F.3d 785, 791 (9th Cir.2005), and we deny the petition for review.

The BIA did not abuse its discretion in denying petitioners’ motion to reopen based on ineffective assistance of counsel in connection with their application for cancellation of removal, where petitioners failed to establish that the actions of their former representatives may have affected their ability to demonstrate exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to their qualifying relatives. See id. at 793-94 (a petitioner must establish prejudice to prevail on an ineffective assistance claim). Therefore, we need not address petitioners’ contention that they were entitled to equitable tolling of the filing limitations applicable to their motion.

To the extent petitioners moved to reopen to apply for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”), the BIA did…