Opinion ID: 78627
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: Before addressing the merits of Mr. Contreras’s challenge to the IJ’s decision regarding his seven-year continuous residence, we consider a potential impediment to our jurisdiction, which we may raise sua sponte. See Conrad v. Phone Directories Co., 585 F.3d 1376, 1380 (10th Cir. 2009). Our concern is Mr. Contreras’s failure to file a brief in his appeal to the BIA. As a general proposition, “neglecting to take an appeal to the BIA constitutes a failure to exhaust administrative remedies as to any issue that could have been raised, negating the jurisdiction necessary for subsequent judicial review.” Torres de la Cruz, 483 F.3d at 1017 (internal quotation marks and alteration omitted). Relevant here, we have held that “general statements in the notice of appeal to the BIA are insufficient to constitute exhaustion of administrative remedies.” Id. at 1018. But fortunately for Mr. Contreras, although he failed to brief his argument before the BIA, it nonetheless opted to resolve his appeal on the merits and rendered a substantive discussion of the seven-year-continuous-residence issue. We therefore conclude that he has exhausted his administrative remedies with respect to that issue. See Sidabutar v. Gonzales, 503 F.3d 1116, 1120–1122 -7- (10th Cir. 2007) (exhaustion requirement is satisfied if the petitioner raised the issue or if the BIA actually decided the issue). We also note that “[a]lthough we generally lack jurisdiction to review denials of discretionary relief, see 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(B), . . . this court always retains jurisdiction to review constitutional claims and questions of law.” Garcia v. Holder, 584 F.3d 1288, 1289 n.2 (10th Cir. 2009). The denial of relief in this case turned on the BIA’s purely legal determination that the stop-time rule must be applied retroactively to a conviction obtained before the rule’s enactment. We have jurisdiction to review this legal determination.