Summary
This Fifth Circuit opinion reviews a petition for review challenging the Board of Immigration Appeals' denial of a second motion to reopen removal proceedings. The petitioner argued that equitable tolling should apply to the statutory numerical limit on motions to reopen and that a Supreme Court decision altered his removability status. The court held that equitable tolling is unavailable for the INA’s numerical cap on motions to reopen, distinguishing it from time-based statutes of limitations. Consequently, the court dismissed the request for sua sponte reopening and denied the remainder of the petition.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the Fifth Circuit had jurisdiction to review the BIA's denial of Garcia Morin's second motion to reopen.
- Whether equitable tolling applies to the INA's one-motion numerical bar for motions to reopen.
- Whether the BIA's refusal to sua sponte reopen the removal proceedings was reviewable.
- Whether application of the numerical bar violated due process.
Holdings
- Equitable tolling is unavailable for the INA's numerical bar. The INA permits an alien to file one motion to reopen, subject only to the statutory exception for certain battered spouses, children, and parents.
- The Fifth Circuit lacks jurisdiction to review the BIA's decision not to sua sponte reopen Garcia Morin's removal proceedings.
- Garcia Morin's due process argument failed because the denial of a motion to reopen, which is discretionary, does not implicate a protected liberty interest or independently create a constitutional violation.
Key quotations
“Today we reject the proposition that number bars are subject to equitable tolling.” (6)
“Unlike time limits, substantive limits and res judicata rules have no background equitable exceptions.” (8)
“We hold, as a matter of law, that equitable tolling is unavailable to the INA’s number bar.” (13)
Factual background
Garcia Morin, a Mexican citizen and lawful permanent resident admitted in 1982, was convicted in 2011 of shooting his ex-wife with a revolver and in 2018 of assaulting a roommate with a knife. DHS charged him as removable under INA § 237(a)(2)(C), based on the 2011 firearm conviction, and the immigration judge ordered his removal while finding him ineligible for various forms of relief. Garcia Morin later filed two motions to reopen based principally on Borden v. United States and arguments for equitable tolling, but the BIA denied the second motion as barred by the INA's numerical limitation.
Procedural history
The Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed an immigration judge's removal order in April 2020, and the Fifth Circuit dismissed Garcia Morin's first petition for review as untimely. The BIA denied Garcia Morin's first motion to reopen or reconsider in January 2023. After he filed a second motion to reopen in July 2024, the BIA denied it as barred by the INA's one-motion numerical limitation and rejected his request for sua sponte reopening. The Fifth Circuit dismissed in part and denied in part his timely petition for review.