RECINOS v. BARR (2019)

MEMORANDUM **

Fernando Enrique Recinos, a native and citizen of Honduras, petitions pro se for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) order dismissing his appeal from an immigration judge’s order denying his motion to reopen. Our jurisdiction is governed by 8 U.S.C. § 1252. We deny in part and dismiss in part the petition for review.

Recinos does not raise, and therefore waives, any challenge to the BIA’s denial of his motion to reopen. See Lopez-Vasquez v. Holder, 706 F.3d 1072, 1079-80 (9th Cir. 2013) (issues not specifically raised and argued in an opening brief are waived).

We lack jurisdiction to consider Recinos’s unexhausted ineffective assistance of counsel claim, which must first be raised in a motion to reopen before the BIA. See Tijani v. Holder, 628 F.3d 1071, 1080 (9th Cir. 2010) (“We lack jurisdiction to review legal claims not presented in an alien’s administrative proceedings before the BIA.”); Liu v. Waters, 55 F.3d 421, 424 (9th Cir. 1995) (“A petitioner must make a motion for the BIA to reopen before we will hold that he has exhausted his [ineffective assistance of counsel] claims.”).

PETITION FOR REVIEW DENIED in part; DISMISSED in part.