Granados

MEMORANDUM **

Saul Aguilera Granados, a native and citizen of Mexico, petitions for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), which affirmed the denial of his motion to reopen to rescind the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) in absentia removal order. Granados argued in his motion to reopen that the ineffective assistance of a notario he had hired constituted an “exceptional circumstance” under 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(b)(5)(C)(i) warranting rescission of his in absentia order of removal, because the notario advised Granados that he would attend the master calendar hearing *853 and Granados did not have to attend. The notario, however, failed to show up at the hearing or render any assistance.

The IJ denied Granados’s motion to reopen on the ground that it failed to comply with Mutter ofLozada, 19 I. & N. Dec. 637 (BIA 1988). The BIA affirmed the denial of Granados’s motion to reopen because Granados (1) failed to set forth a claim of ineffective assistance of a non-attorney; (2) failed to establish exceptional circumstances justifying rescission of the in absentia order of removal; and (3) failed to demonstrate prima facie eligibility for relief from removal.

In his…