Cazares-Zuniga

MEMORANDUM ***

Petitioner Martin Noe Cazares-Zuniga is a Mexican national subject to removal as an alien who has not been lawfully admitted into the United States. He appeals the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) refusal to grant him cancellation of removal pursuant to section 240A(b)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b)(1). Section 240A(b)(1) allows the Attorney General, in his discretion, to grant relief when removal would cause an “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” to family members with American citizenship. Petitioner has three American citizen children, and he claims that their education and welfare would suffer if the family were forced to relocate to Mexico.

The INA as amended by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) provides that “no court shall have jurisdiction to review ... any judgment regarding the granting of’ cancellation of removal. 8 U.S.C. § 1252 (a)(2)(B)(i). This jurisdiction-stripping provision applies only to “decisions by the BIA that involve the exercise of discretion.” Montero-Martinez v. Ashcroft, 277 F.3d 1137, 1144 (9th Cir.2002). As we have previously held, the decision…