Background
Mexican citizen Jose Ramirez Cruz entered the United States at an unknown location and date. In October two thousand nineteen, an immigration judge denied his cancellation of removal for failure to show exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to qualifying relatives. The Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed that decision. In February two thousand twenty-three, Ramirez Cruz married Erika Sanchez and filed a motion to reopen based on new facts regarding hardship and a pending family-based visa petition. The Board denied the motion, finding the evidence insufficient to show hardship beyond ordinary expectations and insufficient to prove the marriage was bona fide.
The court’s reasoning
The court concluded the Board did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion to reopen. The evidence supported a reasonable factfinder’s conclusion that any hardship to the petitioner’s wife and stepchildren would not be substantially different from what is normally expected from deportation. The record contradicted the petitioner’s assertion that the Board failed to consider all hardship evidence. The court also declined to address the claim regarding the bona fide nature of the marriage because the petitioner failed to exhaust that claim before the agency.
What it means going forward
The decision reinforces the high burden for noncitizens seeking to reopen removal proceedings based on new hardship evidence or pending visa petitions without prior exhaustion of those specific arguments.