Diaz-Cortes

MEMORANDUM ***

Ramon Diaz-Cortes, a native and citizen of Mexico, petitions for review of the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals summarily affirming without opinion the Immigration Judge’s denial of his application for cancellation of removal.

We lack jurisdiction to review the BIA’s discretionary determination that petitioner failed to demonstrate the requisite “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” to a qualifying relative. See Romero-Torres v. Ashcroft, 327 F.3d 887, 892 (9th Cir.2003).

Petitioner contends that we retain jurisdiction to consider his statutory challenge to the BIA’s interpretation of the cancellation of removal hardship standard. In Ramirez-Perez v. Ashcroft, 336 F.3d 1001 (9th Cir.2003), we held that a challenge to the BIA’s interpretation of the hardship standard presented a question of statutory construction, and concluded that we retained jurisdiction to consider the challenge. Id. at 1005 — 1006. We further concluded, however, that “the BIA’s interpretation [of the hardship standard] falls well within the broad range authorized by the statutory language,” and this court must defer to it. Accordingly, although we have jurisdiction to…