Sarabia

Sarabia v. Ashcroft

Good Law
87 F. App'x 680
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth CircuitFebruary 12, 2004No. 03-15422; D.C. No. CV-03-00677-TEHCalifornia276 words

Opinion

Lead Opinion

MEMORANDUM **

Olga Martinez de Sarabia appeals the district court’s denial of her habeas corpus petition, which alleges she was eligible to apply for a waiver of deportability under former § 212(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. We review de novo the district court’s denial of Sarabia’s application, Singh v. Ilchert, 63 F.3d 1501, 1506 (9th Cir.1995), conclude that she would have been ineligible for relief under former § 212(c), and affirm.

Sarabia cannot rely on INS v. St. Cyr, 533 U.S. 289, 326 , 121 S.Ct. 2271 , 150 L.Ed.2d 347 (2001), to claim eligibility for § 212(c) relief because she was an aggravated felon who had served at least five years imprisonment. Nor is her argument that she actually served less than five years of her ten-year sentence when she applied for § 212(c) relief persuasive. Former § 212(c)’s ineligibility provision does not distinguish between those periods of imprisonment served as a result of a base offense from time served as a result of any “enhancement.”

To accept Sarabia’s position that the service of the INS notice to appear “stopped the clock” for the purpose of calculating the five-year “term of imprisonment” bar under former § 212(c)…

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