Opinion ID: 1442874
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Hua Zeng

Text: Petitioner Hua Zeng, born in Fujian Province, arrived in the United States without inspection in March 1999. He applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the CAT in July of that year. In his asylum application, Zeng stated that he left China because local officials harassed, attacked, and arrested him after he spoke out against the government. In September 1999, he was placed in removal proceedings, and in February 2000, the IJ ordered Zeng removed in absentia when he failed to attend his removal hearing. The February 23, 2000 removal order became final after Zeng failed to appeal the IJ's order. In June 2000, Zeng filed a motion to reopen his proceedings, alleging that he had missed his master calendar hearing because of circumstances beyond his control. The IJ granted him two weeks to file a detailed affidavit and supporting documentation, but Zeng did not file anything more and did not appeal the IJ's denial of the motion. After the removal order became final, Zeng remained in the United States, married, and fathered two children  one born in December 2002 and the other in October 2005. In January 2006, more than five years after he was ordered removed, Zeng filed with the immigration court a motion to reopen based on his changed personal circumstances. He argued that the birth of his two sons made him newly eligible for asylum relief because he would be forcibly sterilized if removed to China. Zeng also requested permission to file an untimely successive asylum application based on his changed personal circumstances, despite his concession that country conditions had not changed. The IJ denied the motion, noting that a previous motion to reopen filed by Zeng had been denied on July 14, 2000, and that his current motion to reopen thus violated both the time and numerical restrictions set forth in the applicable regulations. The IJ did not act upon Zeng's request for permission to file a second asylum application. In April 2006, Zeng appealed the IJ's decision to the BIA, arguing that no motion to reopen was required in order to file a successive asylum application. The BIA rejected this argument and dismissed Zeng's appeal. The Board agreed with the IJ that Zeng's second motion to reopen was both time-barred and number-barred and, in addition, found the motion to be ineligible for an exception based on changed country conditions because it was based only on a change in personal circumstances. Zeng then filed a timely petition for review in this court.