RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION Pursuant to Sixth Circuit I.O.P. 32.1(b) File Name: 22a0008p.06 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT ┐ MIGUEL ANGEL GUZMAN-TORRALVA, │ Petitioner, │ > No. 21-3360 │ v. │ │ MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, │ Respondent. │ ┘ On Petition for Review from the Board of Immigration Appeals; No. A 206 405 524. Decided and Filed: January 13, 2022 Before: GILMAN, KETHLEDGE, and LARSEN, Circuit Judges. _________________ COUNSEL ON BRIEF: Cesar Martin Estela, Newark , New Jersey, for Petitioner. Joseph D. Hardy, Anthony C. Payne, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. _________________ OPINION _________________ LARSEN, Circuit Judge. Miguel Angel Guzman-Torralva was ordered removed from the country after he missed his hearing in immigration court. Now he seeks to reopen the proceedings, claiming that the bad advice of his lawyer should excuse his absence. But Guzman- Torralva hasn’t met the requirements for reopening. Under Matter of Lozada, a motion to reopen based on ineffective assistance of counsel must state whether the alien filed a formal bar complaint against his lawyer. 19 I. & N. Dec. No. 21-3360 Guzman-Torralva v. Garland Page 2 637, 639 (BIA 1988). If no complaint was filed, the motion must explain why not. Id. Guzman- Torralva didn’t file a bar complaint, so the question on appeal is whether his explanation is adequate. Because we think Lozada requires more than a simple statement that the alien is “not interested in filing a formal complaint,” we DENY the petition for review. I. Guzman-Torralva is a 35-year-old Mexican citizen who illegally entered the United States at age 19. He now lives in New Jersey and has two children who are American citizens. On October 24, 2018, Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained him in Ohio as an alien present without being admitted or paroled. While in detention, he was served with a notice to appear at a hearing scheduled for November 14 in Cleveland. Francis Krajenke, an attorney in Cleveland, represented Guzman-Torralva at that hearing. Guzman-Torralva admitted the factual allegations in the notice to appear and conceded removability. He was then served with a notice to appear at a second hearing, scheduled for November 28, and was released on $15,000 bond. The second hearing was rescheduled to August 20, 2019. The updated notice, like the previous ones, warned Guzman-Torralva that failing to appear could result in an order of removal being issued in his absence. In May 2019, Guzman-Torralva hired a new attorney, Gustavo Fuentes. As it turned out, this was a poor decision. On August 12, 2019, Fuentes filed an appearance with the immigration court in Ohio, moved to substitute for Krajenke, and moved to change the venue of the August 20 hearing from Cleveland to Newark. But all three filings were rejected because Fuentes failed to provide proof of service on Krajenke and to properly sign and paginate the filings. On August 20, neither Guzman-Torralva, Krajenke, nor Fuentes, appeared at the hearing in Cleveland. Accordingly, Guzman-Torralva was ordered removed from …
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