Opinion ID: 3040253
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: [1] The Immigration and Nationality Act ordinarily divests the court of appeals of jurisdiction to review any “final order of removal” against an alien who, like Garcia-Jimenez, has been found removable for committing a crime of moral turpitude or a controlled substance violation. 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(C). The Act, however, states that “[n]othing [herein] . . . which limits or eliminates judicial review shall be construed as precluding review of constitutional claims or questions of law raised upon a petition for review.” Id. § 1252(a)(2)(D). The issue that Garcia-Jimenez raises in his petition is a question of law — whether § 1229b(c)(6) bars him from simultaneously obtaining both a waiver of deportation under § 212(c) and cancellation of removal under § 1229b(a). Therefore, we have jurisdiction to review his petition. ond conviction because his first conviction in 1995 for spousal abuse constituted a crime of moral turpitude, triggering IIRIRA’s new “stop-time” provision and ending his run of “continuous physical presence” in the United States. See § 1229b(d)(1) (“any period of continuous physical presence . . . end[s] when the alien has committed an offense referred to in section 1182(a)(2) of this title that renders the alien inadmissible”). Thus, when he was convicted for a controlled substance violation in 1996, Garcia-Jimenez could no longer meet the seven-year residency requirement. GARCIA-JIMENEZ v. GONZALES 99