Ji Wang Chen v. Ashcroft

MEMORANDUM **

Ji Wang Chen, a native and citizen of China, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) denial of his motion to reopen his removal proceedings. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We review de novo claims of due process violations. See Castillo-Perez v. INS, 212 F.3d 518, 523 (9th Cir.2000). We review the denial of a motion to reopen for abuse of discretion. See De Martinez v. Ashcroft, 374 F.3d 759, 761 (9th Cir.2004). We deny the petition for review.

The BIA correctly construed Chen’s motion to reopen as a motion to reconsider because the record shows that Chen provided no new evidence with his motion and simply sought further reconsideration of issues that were resolved before the immigration judge (“IJ”) and the BIA in 2000 and 2001. See 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2 (c)(1); Lainez-Ortiz v. INS, 96 F.3d 393, 395-96 (9th Cir.1996).

Furthermore, even if the motion were properly treated as a motion to reopen, the BIA correctly denied this motion as untimely because Chen failed to show the requisite diligence in pursuing his case and has provided no explanation for why *917 he filed his motion sixteen months after the BIA denied his…