United States Ninth Circuit

Petition for review of a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals affirming the IJ, ruling that the ten-year period under 8 U.S.C. section 1229b(b)(1)(A) could not be equitably tolled for the alleged fraud by petitioner's immigration service, and that the statutory scheme permitting intermittent absences after a ten-year span but not providing a grace period to effectively reduce the ten-year requirement where there were no intermittent absences did not violate petitioners' equal protection rights, is affirmed where:1) equitable tolling is not available based on alleged unfairness exterior to immigration procedures themselves; and 2) there is a rational basis for distinguishing between aliens who have been present in the United States for different spans of time even where the aliens have spent the same total number of days in the U.S.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/10/2011
• Published 02/10/2011

Judges

• JONES

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel