United States Court of Appeals

for the Fifth Circuit

No. 19-60645

Mirian Margarita Parada-Orellana, 

Petitioner,

versus

Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney General, 

Respondent.

Petition for Review of an Order of the 

Board of Immigration Appeals

BIA No. A200 116 350

Before Higginbotham, Stewart, and Wilson, Circuit Judges.

Cory T. Wilson, Circuit Judge:

Mirian Margarita Parada-Orellana moved the Immigration Court of 

Harlingen, Texas, to rescind her in absentia order of removal or, in the 

alternative, to reopen her removal proceedings to allow her to apply for 

cancellation of removal pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act 

(INA) § 240A(b). The Immigration Judge (IJ) denied her request, and she 

appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which dismissed her 

appeal. She now petitions this court for review. We DENY the petition in 

part and DISMISS in part.

United States Court of Appeals

Fifth Circuit

FILED

August 6, 2021

Lyle W. Cayce

Clerk

Case: 19-60645 Document: 00515968325 Page: 1 Date Filed: 08/06/2021
No. 19-60645

2

I.

Parada-Orellana is a native and citizen of El Salvador. She entered the 

United States on October 1, 2005. While crossing the border, ParadaOrellana was apprehended by border patrol agents. She was detained for 

three days. 

On October 2, 2005, Parada-Orellana was served while in detention 

with a notice to appear (NTA). The NTA ordered her to appear before an IJ

in Harlingen, Texas, at a date and time to be set. Immigration and Customs 

Enforcement (ICE) agents asked Parada-Orellana for the address where she 

would be living in the United States, but she only reported that she would be 

staying with her uncle in Houston, Texas. The agents advised ParadaOrellana that she needed to call and update her address with the immigration 

court when she obtained a stable address. 

After being released, Parada-Orellana went to her uncle’s house in 

Houston. According to Parada-Orellana, she gave all her “immigration 

papers” to her uncle’s wife after his wife told her that it was “risky” to travel 

with them. Two months later, Parada-Orellana relocated to Maryland to live 

with a friend. She did not contact the immigration court to update her 

address. Parada-Orellana states this was because her uncle and his wife 

misplaced her “immigration papers.” 

Regardless, on March 9, 2006, the IJ called Parada-Orellana’s name 

for a hearing. She was not present, so on March 20, 2006, the IJ ordered 

Parada-Orellana to be removed in absentia. The IJ noted that ParadaOrellana was advised that she was required by 8 U.S.C. § 1229(a)(1)(F) to 

provide ICE and the court with her address, which she did not do. The IJ 

concluded that because Parada-Orellana did not meet this requirement, 

under § 1229a(b)(5)(B), the court was not required to provide her with 

written notice of her hearing. 

Case: 19-60645 Document: 00515968325 Page: 2 Date Filed: 08/06/2021
No. 19-60645

3

On April 5, 2010, ICE detained Parada-Orellana in Jessup, Maryland. 

According to Parada-Orellana, this is when she first became aware that the IJ 

had entered a deportation order. After she was released, she consulted with 

two lawyers but did not ultimately pursue any action to address the order.

1

On June 3, 2015, Parada-Orellana married Nelson Antonio Ferman 

Barrera (Ferman), a United States citizen she had been dating since 2006. 

According to Parada-Orellana, she helps Ferman run his business and 

manage his medical conditions (high cholesterol and asthma). ParadaOrellana and Ferman do not have children together. 

In June 2016, Ferman filed an I-130 petition for alien relative on behalf 

of Parada-Orellana, which was approved June 5, 2017. Parada-Orellana then 

requested that the Department of Homeland Security join in a motion to 

reopen her removal proceedings. That request was denied on June 22, 2018. 

On September 20, 2018, Parada-Orellana filed an opposed motion to reopen 

with the IJ, which she later supplemented with exhibits and briefing. In her 

motion, Parada-Orellana sought to rescind her in absentia order of removal

or, in the alternative, to reopen her removal proceedings sua sponte to allow 

her to apply for cancellation of removal for certain non-permanent citizens 

pursuant to INA § 240A(b). The same day she filed her motion, she applied 

for cancellation of removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b)(1). Along with her 

application, she submitted evidence of her relationship with her husband. 

She alleged that her husband would suffer exceptional and extremely unusual 

hardship without her support due to his health conditions.

1

 According to Parada-Orellana, the lawyers advised her that it would be “very 

difficult to obtain a legal status with an order of deportation” and that “if [Parada-Orellana] 

presented [herself] to ICE again, [she] was going to be deported.” 

Case: 19-60645 Document: 00515968325 Page: 3 Date Filed: 08/06/2021
No. 19-60645

4

The IJ denied the motion to reopen on January 28, 2019. First, the IJ 

found that Parada-Orellana was personally served with a NTA that expressly 

warned her of the requirement that she provide written notice of her full 

mailing address and any address or telephone number changes. The IJ then 

concluded that Parada-Orellana forfeited her right to receive notice of her 

hearing by failing to fulfill this requirement. The IJ also determined that 

because the motion to reopen was filed more than 180 days after the removal 

order was issued, the removal order could not be rescinded if Parada-Orellana 

did not show that her failure to appear was due to exceptional circumstances. 

The IJ stated that Parada-Orellana had not established that the 180-day 

deadline should be equitably tolled. The IJ noted that the record was unclear 

as to why Parada-Orellana filed her motion to reopen in 2018, eight years after 

she learned that that she had been ordered removed. And the IJ concluded 

that Parada-Orellana failed to demonstrate reasonable diligence in filing her 

motion to reopen with respect to the 180-day deadline. 

Nonetheless, the IJ ultimately determined that Parada-Orellana was 

entitled to equitable tolling of the deadline for a motion to reopen to apply for 

cancellation of removal considering the Supreme Court’s decision in Pereira 

v. Sessions, 138 S. Ct. 2105 (2018). Reaching the merits, the IJ denied the 

motion to reopen, concluding that Parada-Orellana did not establish prima 

facie eligibility for the relief of cancellation of removal. Specifically, the IJ 

concluded that Parada-Orellana did not show that her husband would 

experience exceptional and extremely unusual hardship in the event of her 

removal.

Parada-Orellana appealed the IJ’s decision to the BIA. The BIA 

dismissed the appeal on August 6, 2019. The BIA agreed with the IJ that 

Parada-Orellana failed to establish that the removal order should be 

rescinded because her lack of notice of her hearing. The BIA also agreed with 

the IJ that, although Parada-Orellana established eligibility for equitable 

Case: 19-60645 Document: 00515968325 Page: 4 Date Filed: 08/06/2021
No. 19-60645

5

tolling regarding the motion to reopen to apply for cancellation of removal, 

she did not establish prima facie eligibility for cancellation of removal. On 

September 3, 2019, Parada-Orellana filed a timely petition for review with 

this court. See 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(1), (b)(1), (b)(2).

II.

Parada-Orellana raises two issues in her petition for review.

2 First, 

she contends the BIA erred by failing to apply and follow its own precedent

when it denied her motion to reopen. Second, she contends the BIA erred in

concluding that she had not presented evidence of prima facie eligibility for 

cancellation of removal because she did not show that her husband would 

experience the requisite hardship in the event of her removal. 

In response, the Government asserts this court lacks jurisdiction to 

review the BIA’s prima facie determination pursuant to 8 U.S.C. 

§ 1252(a)(2)(B)(i), which precludes judicial review of any judgment regarding 

cancellation of removal under § 1229b. The Government does not contest

that this court retains jurisdiction over questions of law, such as application 

of the appropriate legal standard. But the Government asserts that ParadaOrellana’s claim in this regard—that the BIA failed to apply and follow its 

own precedent—is “simply [a] factual and discretionary dispute[] cloaked 

with legal language” that should likewise fall under the jurisdictional bar.

Parada-Orellana acknowledges § 1252(a)(2)(B)(i)’s bar but counters 

that it does not prevent our review of her claims because she has never had a

“full merits” hearing on her application for cancellation of removal. We 

2

 Parada-Orellana admits in her brief that her arguments regarding recission of her 

in absentia removal order are foreclosed by this court’s decisions in Ramos-Portillo v. Barr, 

919 F.3d 955, 961–62 (5th Cir. 2019) and Mauricio-Benitez v. Sessions, 908 F.3d 144, 148

(5th Cir. 2018). Accordingly, she does not press this issue on appeal. 

Case: 19-60645 Document: 00515968325 Page: 5 Date Filed: 08/06/2021
No. 19-60645

6

address both issues raised by Parada-Orellana, including our jurisdiction or 

lack thereof, in turn. 

A.

While we typically only review the final decision of the BIA, when the 

IJ’s ruling plays into the BIA’s decision, as it does in this case, we review both 

the IJ’s and the BIA’s decisions. Sealed Petitioner v. Sealed Respondent, 829 

F.3d 379, 383 (5th Cir. 2016). This court reviews questions of law, such as 

the BIA’s application of the appropriate legal standard, de novo. Rodriguez 

v. Holder, 585 F.3d 227, 233 (5th Cir. 2009). Otherwise, we review the BIA’s

denial of a motion to reopen under “a highly deferential abuse-of-discretion 

standard, regardless of the basis of the alien’s request for relief.” GomezPalacios v. Holder, 560 F.3d 354, 358 (5th Cir. 2009). This means we will

“affirm the BIA’s decision as long as it is not capricious, without foundation 

in the evidence, or otherwise so irrational that it is arbitrary rather than the 

result of any perceptible rational approach.” Id. 

B.

Parada-Orellana first asserts that the BIA abused its discretion by 

failing to follow its own precedent and apply the correct legal standard to her 

motion to reopen. More specifically, she alleges the BIA “ignored its own 

case law regarding the standard for evaluating prima facie evidence of 

eligibility for relief in a motion to reopen that was announced in Matter of LO-G-[, 21 I & N Dec. 413, 418-19 (BIA 1996)].” According to ParadaOrellana, “remand is necessary so that the [BIA] can clarify the standard 

employed in evaluating [her] evidence for prima facie eligibility for 

relief . . . .” We disagree. 

To begin, as we previously noted, whether the BIA applied the correct 

legal standard is a question of law over which this court has jurisdiction. 

Hakim v. Holder, 628 F.3d 151, 155 (5th Cir. 2010); see also 8 U.S.C. 

Case: 19-60645 Document: 00515968325 Page: 6 Date Filed: 08/06/2021
No. 19-60645

7

§ 1252(a)(2)(D). We acknowledge the Government’s contention that this 

issue is a factual (and thus discretionary, and non-appealable) dispute 

disguised with legal language, but we conclude that Parada-Orellana’s 

assertion is sufficient to require us to address the issue as a question of law. 

For background, the BIA may deny a motion to reopen on one of three 

grounds: (1) failure to establish a prima facie case for the underlying relief 

sought, (2) failure to introduce previously unavailable, material evidence, or 

(3) failure to establish entitlement to discretionary relief. I.N.S. v. Abudu, 

485 U.S. 94, 104–05 (1988). Parada-Orellana’s appeal implicates Abudu’s 

first ground for denying a motion to reopen—failure to establish a prima facie 

case for the underlying relief sought. The underlying relief that ParadaOrellana sought was cancellation of removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b)(1).

The BIA agreed with the IJ that Parada-Orellana had “not established 

prima facie eligibility for cancellation of removal” under § 1229b(b)(1). 

Section 1229b(b)(1) requires an applicant to establish, inter alia, “that 

removal would result in exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” to the 

applicant’s qualified family member, here, Parada-Orellana’s husband. 

According to the BIA, Parada-Orellana failed to make this showing. More 

specifically, the BIA concluded that she did not show “that her husband 

could not obtain medical care, if she were removed, and emotional hardship, 

without more, does not meet the standard for exceptional and extremely 

unusual hardship.”

In her petition to this court, Parada-Orellana contends that the IJ and 

the BIA held her to a higher standard than simply establishing prima facie

evidence of extreme and unusual hardship, as if she “had a full hearing on 

the merits of her cancellation application.” She states that although the BIA 

used the phrase “prima facie eligibility,” it did not actually apply the 

standard set forth in Matter of L-O-G-, which requires that the BIA decide 

Case: 19-60645 Document: 00515968325 Page: 7 Date Filed: 08/06/2021
No. 19-60645

8

whether there is a “reasonable likelihood that relief will be granted in the 

exercise of discretion.” Matter of L-O-G-, 21 I. & N. Dec at 419. 

Parada-Orellana makes this assertion despite acknowledging that the 

BIA opinion does not expound upon the standard of review beyond stating 

that she must establish “prima facie eligibility” for relief. In other words, 

Parada-Orellana does not point to any language in the BIA’s order that would 

indicate that the BIA applied the incorrect standard. In fact, the record 

reflects the opposite. 

In her order, the IJ concluded that Parada-Orellana had “not shown 

that there is a reasonable likelihood that she c[ould] demonstrate that her 

removal to El Salvador would result in exceptional and extremely unusual 

hardship to her husband.” (emphasis added). In reaching this conclusion, 

the IJ cited In Re S-V-, 22 I. & N. Dec. 1306 (BIA 2000), a more recent case

that cited Matter of L-O-G- to support its use of the reasonable-likelihood 

standard. And in its order dismissing Parada-Orellana’s appeal, the BIA

stated that it agreed with the IJ’s analysis and affirmed her decision.

The BIA’s failure expressly to denote the standard of review does not 

make the BIA’s ruling incorrect. Indeed, failure to expound upon the law 

and failure to apply the law (or failure to apply the law correctly) are not the 

same. There is no requirement “that the BIA address evidentiary minutiae 

or write any lengthy exegesis . . . .” Abdel-Masieh v. U.S. I.N.S., 73 F.3d 579, 

585 (5th Cir. 1996) (citation omitted). Upon review of the record, we find no 

indication that the BIA abused its discretion by applying an incorrect legal 

standard. Accordingly, this issue lacks merit.

C.

Next, Parada-Orellana asserts that the BIA abused its discretion by 

finding she had not presented prima facie evidence of eligibility for the relief 

of cancellation of removal. As mentioned above, the Government counters 

Case: 19-60645 Document: 00515968325 Page: 8 Date Filed: 08/06/2021
No. 19-60645

9

that this court lacks jurisdiction to review the BIA’s prima facie hardship 

determination pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(B)(i). We agree that we 

lack jurisdiction to reach this issue.

Section 1252(a)(2)(B)(i) precludes judicial review of “any judgment”

regarding the grant or denial of cancellation of removal under § 1229b:

Notwithstanding any other provision of law . . . and except as 

provided in subparagraph (D), and regardless of whether the 

judgment, decision, or action is made in removal proceedings, 

no court shall have jurisdiction to review any judgment

regarding the granting of relief under section . . . 1229b . . . of 

this title. 

(emphasis added); see also Sung v. Keisler, 505 F.3d 372, 377 (5th Cir. 2007).3

 

Based on this proscription, we have routinely held that we are barred from 

reviewing eitherthe BIA’s initial denials of petitioners’ claims to cancellation 

of removal or subsequent denials of motions to reopen the same. See, e.g., 

Assad v. Ashcroft, 378 F.3d 471, 475 (5th Cir. 2004); Rodriguez v. Ashcroft, 253 

3 Section 1229b(b)(1) provides:

The Attorney General may cancel removal of, and adjust to the status of 

an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, an alien who is 

inadmissible or deportable from the United States if the alien—

(A) has been physically present in the United States for a continuous 

period of not less than 10 years immediately preceding the date of 

such application;

(B) has been a person of good moral character during such period;

(C) has not been convicted of an offense under section 1182(a)(2), 

1227(a)(2), or 1227(a)(3) of this title, subject to paragraph (5); and

(D) establishes that removal would result in exceptional and extremely 

unusual hardship to the alien’s spouse, parent, or child, who is a 

citizen of the United States or an alien lawfully admitted for 

permanent residence.

Case: 19-60645 Document: 00515968325 Page: 9 Date Filed: 08/06/2021
No. 19-60645

10

F.3d 797, 799–800 (5th Cir. 2001); see also Mata v. Lynch, 576 U.S. 143, 147 

(2015). 

According to Parada-Orellana, however, § 1252(a)(2)(B)(i)’s explicit 

bar does not preclude our review here. She contends this case is different

because she has never had a “full merits” hearing on her application for 

cancellation of removal. Parada-Orellana refers us to Manzano-Garcia v. 

Gonzales, 413 F.3d 462 (5th Cir. 2005), to support her position that this 

distinction makes her case reviewable. She posits that in Manzano-Garcia, 

this court held that § 1252(a)(2)(B)(i)’s bar did not apply “where no 

previous[] decision had been made on an application for discretionary relief 

at a full merits hearing.” But this is an incorrect interpretation of ManzanoGarcia. 

While we concluded that we had jurisdiction to review the BIA’s 

denial of the petitioner’s motion to reopen in Manzano-Garcia, our holding 

was narrower than Parada-Orellana suggests. In reaching our decision, we

explained:

the BIA denied the Manzanos’ motion to reopen pursuant to 8 

C.F.R. § 1003.2 and the “new evidence” ground of Abudu. . . . 

The BIA thus ultimately affirmed its prior affirmance of the 

Manzanos’ removability under § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i); it did not 

make an adverse determination of the merits of Mr. Manzano’s 

application for adjustment of status under § 1255.

Manzano-Garcia, 413 F.3d at 468. In other words, we determined that we 

had jurisdiction there because the BIA’s judgment on the petitioner’s motion 

to reopen was premised on the “new evidence” ground of Abudu and “did 

not relate to any of the delineated subsections of title 8 we cannot review 

under § 1252(a)(2)(B)(i).” Id. at 469. The same is not true here. 

As discussed above, Abudu set forth three grounds for the BIA to deny 

a motion to reopen: (1) failure to establish a prima facie case for the 

Case: 19-60645 Document: 00515968325 Page: 10 Date Filed: 08/06/2021
No. 19-60645

11

underlying relief sought, (2) failure to introduce previously unavailable, 

material evidence, or (3) failure to establish entitlement to discretionary 

relief. Abudu, 485 U.S. at 104–05. In Manzano-Garcia, the BIA denied the 

petitioner’s motion to reopen on the second ground, requiring new evidence. 

413 F.3d at 469. Here, the BIA denied Parada-Orellana’s motion to reopen 

on the first ground, failure to establish a prima facie case for cancellation of 

removal. This distinction is important because the BIA’s ultimate 

determination in this case—that Parada-Orellana failed to make a prima facie 

showing of hardship—falls within “the delineated subsections of title 8 we 

cannot review under § 1252(a)(2)(B)(i).” Id. at 467; see also Fernandez v. 

Gonzales, 439 F.3d 592, 599-600 (9th Cir. 2006) (analyzing distinction

between Abudu’s first two categories and concluding the same).

Section 1252(a)(2)(B)(i) specifically precludes judicial review of “any 

judgment” regarding cancellation of removal under § 1229b. This 

encompasses § 1229b(b)(1)(D)’s requirement that the petitioner establish

“that removal would result in exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to 

the alien’s spouse, . . . who is a citizen of the United States . . . .” While it is 

true that Parada-Orellana did not have a “full merits” hearing on her 

application for cancellation, the BIA’s denial of her motion based on its 

conclusion that she failed to establish a prima facie case for the underlying 

relief of cancellation of removal is tantamount to a discretionary decision on 

the merits barred by § 1252(a)(2)(B)(i). 

The Government’s brief sums it up well: 

the only way to evaluate whether Parada[-Orellana]’s evidence 

demonstrated a reasonable likelihood that she could show the 

necessary hardship in a reopened hearing would be to evaluate 

the factual circumstances . . . and determine whether those 

facts, when fully developed at a hearing, might rise to the 

hardship standard. The discretionary determination of 

Case: 19-60645 Document: 00515968325 Page: 11 Date Filed: 08/06/2021
No. 19-60645

12

whether a given set of facts rises to the hardship standard is 

precisely the determination Congress left in the agency’s 

hands.

Accordingly, we lack jurisdiction to review this issue. See, e.g., Sung, 505 

F.3d at 377; Rodriguez, 253 F.3d at 799; Moosa v. I.N.S., 171 F.3d 994, 1013 

(5th Cir. 1999). 

* * *

For the reasons stated herein, we DENY Parada-Orellana’s petition 

as to her first issue. We DISMISS her petition for lack of jurisdiction as to 

her second issue.

PETITION DENIED IN PART; DISMISSED IN PART.

Case: 19-60645 Document: 00515968325 Page: 12 Date Filed: 08/06/2021