De Assis v. Ashcroft

MEMORANDUM **

Francisco De Assis, a native and citizen of Brazil, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) decision denying his motion to reopen. We have jurisdiction under former 8 U.S.C. § 1105a(a). Kalaw v. INS, 133 F.3d 1147, 1150 (9th Cir.1997). We review for abuse of discretion the denial of a motion to reopen, Singh v. INS, 213 F.3d 1050, 1052 (9th Cir.2000), and we deny the petition for review.

De Assis’s motion to reopen was based on the alleged ineffective assistance of his former representative. He contends that the representative did not notify him of his May 16,1991 deportation hearing, deportation order, or grant of voluntary departure and that he did not learn of the deportation order or grant of voluntary departure until February 2003. The BIA properly found that there was no ineffective assistance because there is an employment authorization document dated May 16, 1991, signed by De Assis indicating that voluntary departure was granted on May 16, 1991, De Assis’s former representative testified at a hearing on the motion to reopen *79 indicating that she met with De Assis two days prior to the hearing and that she mailed a copy of the…