Case Explained: MORENO-ARIAS V. BLANCHE

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Filed: 2026-07-14

The Ninth Circuit denied Ana Cecilia Moreno-Arias’s petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ decision dismissing her appeal of an immigration judge’s denial of cancellation of removal. The court applied the substantial evidence standard to determine whether the BIA correctly applied the statutory requirement that removal must cause “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” to qualifying U.S. citizen relatives under 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b)(1)(D). While acknowledging that the petitioner’s deportation would result in emotional and financial hardship for her family, the court held that the record did not compel a finding that such hardship was substantially different from or beyond what is normally expected from the deportation of a close family member, citing Wilkinson v. Garland and Matter of Monreal-Aguinaga. The court further rejected the petitioner’s argument that the BIA failed to consider all facts and affirmed the BIA’s consideration of her potential future path to lawful immigration as a negative factor in the hardship analysis. Consequently, the petition is denied, leaving the BIA’s order dismissing the appeal and the underlying denial of cancellation of removal in effect.

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