Case Name: Yeghisabet GRIGORYAN, Petitioner, v. Jefferson B. SESSIONS III, Attorney General, Respondent
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 2017-04-20
Citations: 689 F. App'x 478
Docket Number: No. 15-72666
Parties: Yeghisabet GRIGORYAN, Petitioner, v. Jefferson B. SESSIONS III, Attorney General, Respondent.
Judges: Before: GOULD, CLIFTON, and HURWITZ, Circuit Judges.
Reporter: West's Federal Appendix
Volume: 689
Pages: 478–479

Head Matter:
Yeghisabet GRIGORYAN, Petitioner, v. Jefferson B. SESSIONS III, Attorney General, Respondent.
No. 15-72666
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
Submitted April 11, 2017
Filed April 20, 2017
Artem M. Sarian, Esquire, Attorney, Sa-rian Law Group, APLC, Glendale, CA, Timothy Bo Stanton, Attorney, DOJ — U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division/Office of Immigration Litigation, Washington, DC,.for Petitioner
Edward C. Durant, Attorney, OIL, DOJ — U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division/Office of Immigration Litigation, Washington, DC, Chief Counsel ICE, Office of the Chief Counsel, Department of Homeland Security, San Francisco, CA, for Respondent
Before: GOULD, CLIFTON, and HURWITZ, Circuit Judges.
The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).

Opinion:
MEMORANDUM
Yeghisabet Grigoryan, a native and citizen of Armenia, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals' ("BIA") order denying her motion to reopen removal proceedings. Our jurisdiction is governed by 8 U.S.C. § 1252. We review for abuse of discretion the denial of a motion to reopen. Avagyan v. Holder, 646 F.3d 672, 674 (9th Cir. 2011). We deny in part and dismiss in part the petition for review.
The BIA did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion to. reopen based on ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to show prejudice, where Grigoryan offered no new contentions or evidence regarding nexus to a protected ground, and therefore did not establish that prior counsels' performance may have affected the outcome of his proceedings. See Maravilla Maravilla v. Ashcroft, 381 F.3d 855, 858 (9th Cir. 2004) (to establish prejudice for an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, an alien must demonstrate that counsel's performance may have affected the outcome of the proceedings).
The record does not support Grigoryan's contention that the agency failed to consider arguments or provide sufficient reasoning. See Najmabadi v. Holder, 597 F.3d 983, 990 (9th Cir. 2010).
' We lack jurisdiction to consider Grigor-yan's contention that the agency abused its discretion in declining to reopen her case sua sponte. See Ekimian v. I.N.S., 303 F.3d 1153, 1159-60 (9th Cir. 2002); Mejia-Hernandez v. Holder, 633 F.3d 818, 823-824 (9th Cir. 2011); cf. Bonilla v. Lynch, 840 F.3d 575, 588 (9th Cir. 2016). Grigor-yan urges us to reconsider our holding in Ekimian, but a three-judge panel cannot overrule circuit precedent in the absence of an intervening decision from a higher court or en banc decision of this court. See Avagyan v. Holder, 646 F.3d 672, 677 (9th Cir. 2011).
We deny the request for EAJA fees as moot.
PETITION FOR REVIEW DENIED in part; DISMISSED in part.
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3,