ROMERO SORTO v. BARR (2019)

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Sandra Lorena ROMERO-SORTO, Petitioner v. William P. BARR, U.S. Attorney General, Respondent

No. 18-60525

Decided: April 25, 2019

Before BARKSDALE, ELROD, and HO, Circuit Judges. Sandra Lorena Romero-Sorto, Pro Se Andrea Niki Gevas, U.S. Department of Justice Office, of Immigration Litigation, Washington, DC, for Respondent

Sandra Lorena Romero-Sorto, a native and citizen of El Salvador and proceeding pro se, entered the United States unlawfully in 2005 and in 2006 was ordered, in absentia, to be removed. In 2016, an immigration judge denied her motion to sua sponte reopen the removal proceedings and rescind the removal order. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) dismissed the appeal in November 2016.

In December 2017, Romero moved the BIA to reopen the removal proceedings sua sponte under its regulatory authority. She claimed changed-and-exceptional circumstances warranted reopening. Her motion was denied in June 2018, with the BIA’s ruling, inter alia, the motion was untimely.

Here, Romero does not dispute her motion was untimely. We lack jurisdiction to review the BIA’s decision not to reopen an action sua sponte because the BIA has complete discretion to deny untimely regulatory motions to reopen, and we “ha[ve] no legal standard by which to judge the [BIA’s] ruling”. Gonzalez-Cantu v. Sessions, 866 F.3d 302, 306 (5th Cir. 2017), cert. denied, ––– U.S. ––––, 138 S.Ct. 677, 199 L.Ed.2d 535 (2018); see also Mejia v. Whitaker, 913 F.3d 482, 490 (5th Cir. 2019).

DISMISSED.

FOOTNOTES

FOOTNOTE.  

PER CURIAM: * FN* Pursuant to 5th Cir. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5th Cir. R. 47.5.4.