Filed: Feb. 13, 2019
Latest Update: Mar. 03, 2020
Summary: NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _ No. 18-2115 _ ELIO RUBEL SALGUERO-GALDAMEZ, Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Respondent _ On Petition for Review of a Decision of the United States Department of Justice Board of Immigration Appeals (Agency No. A206-010-468) Immigration Judge: Charles M. Honeyman _ Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) on January 22, 2019 Before: CHAGARES and BIBAS, Circuit Judges, and SÁNCHEZ,* Chief District
Summary: NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _ No. 18-2115 _ ELIO RUBEL SALGUERO-GALDAMEZ, Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Respondent _ On Petition for Review of a Decision of the United States Department of Justice Board of Immigration Appeals (Agency No. A206-010-468) Immigration Judge: Charles M. Honeyman _ Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) on January 22, 2019 Before: CHAGARES and BIBAS, Circuit Judges, and SÁNCHEZ,* Chief District J..
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NOT PRECEDENTIAL
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
_______________
No. 18-2115
_______________
ELIO RUBEL SALGUERO-GALDAMEZ,
Petitioner
v.
ATTORNEY GENERAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Respondent
_______________
On Petition for Review of a Decision of the
United States Department of Justice
Board of Immigration Appeals
(Agency No. A206-010-468)
Immigration Judge: Charles M. Honeyman
_______________
Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a)
on January 22, 2019
Before: CHAGARES and BIBAS, Circuit Judges, and SÁNCHEZ,* Chief District Judge
(Filed: February 13, 2019)
_______________
OPINION**
_______________
*
The Honorable Juan R. Sánchez, Chief District Judge of the United States District
Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, sitting by designation.
**
This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and under I.O.P. 5.7 is not bind-
ing precedent.
BIBAS, Circuit Judge.
Aliens may try to reopen their removal proceedings. But there is a time limit, and Elio
Salguero-Galdamez missed it. So he must identify an exception to the time limit. He in-
vokes only one: that the conditions in his home country have changed since his prior pro-
ceeding. But he offers no evidence of this. And while Salguero-Galdamez challenges the
Board of Immigration Appeals’ refusal to exercise its discretion to reopen sua sponte, we
lack jurisdiction over that decision. So we will deny this petition in part and dismiss it in
part.
Salguero-Galdamez is a citizen of Guatemala and concedes that he is removable. To
prevent his removal, he applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the
Convention Against Torture. He claimed that he feared persecution because he is young
and he and his family own property. But an immigration judge denied that application, and
the Board affirmed.
Yet Salguero-Galdamez was not removed right away. More than a year later, he moved
to reopen the proceedings based on changed circumstances: he has now “disclos[ed] that
he is a homosexual and fear[s] . . . returning to” Guatemala because he has come out. AR
17. But the Board denied his motion as untimely. And it declined to exercise its discretion
to reopen sua sponte.
So Salguero-Galdamez petitioned for review of those decisions. To the extent that we
have jurisdiction, we review for abuse of discretion. Guo v. Ashcroft,
386 F.3d 556, 562
(3d Cir. 2004).
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Motions to reopen are disfavored.
Id. at 561. As a rule, an alien may file only one such
motion and must do so within ninety days of the Board’s decision. 8 U.S.C.
§ 1229a(c)(7)(A) & (c)(7)(C)(i). Salguero-Galdamez filed his motion more than a year too
late.
But this time limit has a few exceptions. Salguero-Galdamez gestures at only one: that
the conditions in Guatemala have materially changed since his prior proceeding.
Id.
§ 1229a(c)(7)(C)(ii); 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c)(3)(ii). He bears the burden of proof on this ex-
ception. Pllumi v. Att’y Gen.,
642 F.3d 155, 161 (3d Cir. 2011). He has not met that burden.
Salguero-Galdamez offers no evidence that conditions in Guatemala have grown worse
for him. While he claims that he came out only recently, that does not show a change in
Guatemala. See Khan v. Att’y Gen.,
691 F.3d 488, 497-98 (3d Cir. 2012). We are conscious
that this process may have been difficult for him. But he has to show that country conditions
have changed. He has not. So the time limit applies, and his motion is time-barred.
Salguero-Galdamez raises one last claim: that the Board should have reopened his pro-
ceeding sua sponte. But the Board’s discretion to do so is typically unfettered, so as a rule
we lack jurisdiction over it. Sang Goo Park v. Att’y Gen.,
846 F.3d 645, 651 (3d Cir. 2017).
To be sure, we would retain jurisdiction if the Board relied on an incorrect legal premise
or limited its discretion by a rule or a settled course of adjudication.
Id. at 651-53. But
Salguero-Galdamez points to none of these grounds, and we see no support for them. So
we lack jurisdiction. We will thus deny the petition in part and dismiss it in part.
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