Court Opinion

ID: 9890872
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-16 18:00:35.690692+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:50:02.610756
License: Public Domain

Case: 23-60097         Document: 00516931983             Page: 1      Date Filed: 10/16/2023

              United States Court of Appeals
                   for the Fifth Circuit
                                      ____________
                                                                               United States Court of Appeals
                                                                                        Fifth Circuit
                                       No. 23-60097
                                     Summary Calendar                                 FILED
                                     ____________                               October 16, 2023
                                                                                 Lyle W. Cayce
   Basil Uzoma Onyido,                                                                Clerk

                                                                                 Petitioner,

                                             versus

   Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney General,

                                                                               Respondent.
                      ______________________________

                         Petition for Review of an Order of the
                             Board of Immigration Appeals
                               Agency No. A029 891 590
                      ______________________________

   Before Barksdale, Graves, and Oldham, Circuit Judges.
   Per Curiam: *
          Proceeding pro se, Basil Uzoma Onyido, a native and citizen of Nigeria
   who was deported to Nigeria in 1999, petitions for review of a Board of
   Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) order denying his sixth motion to reopen and
   reconsider. See, e.g., Jaco v. Garland, 24 F.4th 395, 400 (5th Cir. 2021) (“We
   construe the filings of pro se litigants liberally.”).

          _____________________
          *
              This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.
Case: 23-60097      Document: 00516931983           Page: 2     Date Filed: 10/16/2023

                                     No. 23-60097

            “[Our] court reviews the denial of motions to reopen and for
   reconsideration under a highly deferential abuse-of-discretion standard.”
   Gonzalez Hernandez v. Garland, 9 F.4th 278, 283 (5th Cir. 2021). We will
   affirm “so long as it is not capricious, racially invidious, utterly without
   foundation in the evidence, or otherwise so irrational that it is arbitrary rather
   than the result of any perceptible rational approach”. E.g., Zhao v. Gonzales,
   404 F.3d 295, 304 (5th Cir. 2005) (citation omitted).
            An alien may file only one motion to reopen unless an exception—
   inapplicable here—applies. 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(c)(7)(A). When a motion to
   reopen is number-barred, the resulting petition for review “must be denied”.
   Djie v. Garland, 39 F.4th 280, 287–88 (5th Cir. 2022). An alien is likewise
   limited to only one motion to reconsider. 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(c)(6)(A).
            Because this is not Onyido’s first motion either to reopen or to
   reconsider, the BIA did not abuse its discretion in denying his motion. In
   addition, our court lacks jurisdiction to review the BIA’s refusal sua sponte to
   reopen proceedings. E.g., Qorane v. Barr, 919 F.3d 904, 911–12 (5th Cir.
   2019).
            DISMISSED in part and DENIED in part.

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