Opinion ID: 40366
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Petitioner's Statutory Claim

Text: 10 The Petitioner argues that the IJ violated his rights pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(b)(4) by not allowing his attorney to question him, ending his testimony before he finished speaking, taking into account a sworn affidavit submitted by a deportation officer after the close of the hearing, and by failing to create and preserve a record of the hearing. Title 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(b)(4), however, applies to removal proceedings — not to motions to reopen. Motions to reopen are motions to reconvene removal proceedings. To that end, motions to reopen help to serve the due process requirements associated with removal proceedings. Like section 1229a(b)(4), subsection 1229a(c)(7) applies to proceedings under [§ 1229a], or removal proceedings. Because the hearing on the motion to reopen was not a removal proceeding, the Petitioner is not entitled to the rights enumerated in 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(b)(4). Moreover, neither the Immigration and Nationality Act, nor 8 C.F.R. § 1003.23, the section of the regulations governing motions to reopen, provides for any of the safeguards that Petitioner claims were denied.