Court Opinion

ID: 9352613
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-01-09 00:00:39.515978+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:58:01.383419
License: Public Domain

Case: 22-60256        Document: 00516601245             Page: 1      Date Filed: 01/06/2023

             United States Court of Appeals
                  for the Fifth Circuit
                                                                              United States Court of Appeals
                                                                                       Fifth Circuit
                                      No. 22-60256
                                    Summary Calendar                                 FILED
                                                                               January 6, 2023
                                                                                Lyle W. Cayce
   Alejandro Escobedo-Molina,                                                        Clerk

                                                                                Petitioner,

                                            versus

   Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney General,

                                                                              Respondent.

                         Petition for Review of an Order of the
                             Board of Immigration Appeals
                               Agency No. A092 085 989

   Before Higginbotham, Graves, and Ho, Circuit Judges.
   Per Curiam:*
         Alejandro Escobedo-Molina, a native and citizen of Mexico, petitions
   for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’s (BIA) decision denying his
   motion to reopen or reconsider removal proceedings. We review the BIA’s
   legal conclusions de novo and, where the agency has applied the correct law,
   we review the denial of reconsideration or reopening under a highly

         *
             This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.
Case: 22-60256     Document: 00516601245           Page: 2   Date Filed: 01/06/2023

                                    No. 22-60256

   deferential abuse-of-discretion standard. Gonzalez Hernandez v. Garland,
   9 F.4th 278, 283 (5th Cir. 2021), cert. denied, No. 21-1323, 2022 WL 4651375
   (U.S. Oct. 3, 2022).
          On appeal, Escobedo-Molina argues that, in violation of his due
   process rights and in an abuse of the agency’s discretion, the BIA ignored his
   specific statements of “when and how” he learned of his potential claims for
   purposes of equitable tolling of the limitations period for reopening or
   reconsideration, and the fact that his claims relied on not just I.N.S. v. St.
   Cyr, 533 U.S. 289 (2001), but also on Garcia-Carias v. Holder, 697 F.3d 257
   (5th Cir. 2012), and Lugo-Resendez v. Lynch, 831 F.3d 337 (5th Cir. 2016). To
   be entitled to equitable tolling, Escobedo-Molina had to show that: “(1) he
   has been pursuing his rights diligently and (2) some extraordinary
   circumstance has stood in his way and prevented timely filing.” Gonzalez
   Hernandez, 9 F.4th at 284. Given the BIA’s reasoned and specific analysis of
   the record evidence and the timeline relating to the three cases on which
   Escobedo-Molina        relied,   Escobedo-Molina’s        continued     vague
   representations as to when he learned of his claims and took action on that
   knowledge are insufficient to show that the agency decision was completely
   unfounded in the evidence or its denial of equitable tolling otherwise so
   irrational as to be arbitrary. See Masin-Ventura v. Garland, 41 F.4th 482, 484
   (5th Cir. 2022); Gonzalez Hernandez, 9 F.4th at 284; Gonzalez-Cantu v.
   Sessions, 866 F.3d 302, 305 & n.4 (5th Cir. 2017).
          The petition for review is DENIED.

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