Ramirez Canseco v. Gonzales

MEMORANDUM **

Carlos Rufino Ramirez Canseco, a native and citizen of Mexico, petitions pro se for review of an August 9, 2004, order of the Board of Immigration Appeals affirming, without opinion, the results of an immigration judge’s decision denying his application for cancellation of removal.

Because the Board affirmed the immigration judge’s decision without opinion, the immigration judge’s decision is the final agency determination subject to our review. Carriche v. Ashcroft, 350 F.3d 845, 849 (9th Cir.2003). But we lack jurisdiction to review the immigration judge’s decision in this instance because the immigration judge denied the application based on his discretionary determination that Ramirez Canseco failed to establish the requisite exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to a qualifying relative. 8 U.S.C. § 1252 (a)(2)(B)(i); Martinez-Rosas v. Gonzales, 424 F.3d 926 (9th Cir.2005).

Ramirez Canseco’s equal-protection challenge regarding the disparity in standards precipitated by the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (“NACARA”) lacks merit. Jimenez-Angeles v. Ashcroft, 291 F.3d 594, 602-03 (9th Cir.2002) (rejecting equal-protection challenge to…