Background
Hector Fuentes-Ramos, a native and citizen of Mexico, petitioned for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals order. The order affirmed an Immigration Judge’s finding of removability and denial of applications for withholding of removal, protection under the Convention Against Torture, and cancellation of removal and adjustment of status.
The court’s reasoning
The court reviewed the BIA’s legal conclusions de novo. Regarding cancellation of removal, the court found that Fuentes-Ramos’s conviction under Oregon Revised Statutes Section one sixty-three point one six zero one a and three c describes a crime of child abuse, child neglect, or child abandonment. The court rejected arguments based on State versus Yong and State versus Glaspey, noting that merger analysis differs from divisibility analysis and that the statute does concern harm to children. Regarding the notice to appear, the court held that the lack of hearing date and time information was not a jurisdictional defect because the time and place requirement is a claims-processing rule. Any defect was cured by later notice provided to the petitioner.
What it means going forward
The decision reinforces that convictions under specific Oregon assault statutes render noncitizens ineligible for cancellation of removal and clarifies that procedural defects in notice to appear documents do not strip the immigration court of jurisdiction if cured by subsequent notice.