Case: 17-15720 Date Filed: 04/17/2019 Page: 1 of 10 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ Nos. 17-15720; 18-12315 Non-Argument Calendar ________________________ Agency No. A079-343-888 ALBA LUCIA REINA BERNAL, Petitioner, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ________________________ Petitions for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals ________________________ (April 17, 2019) Before ED CARNES, Chief Judge, MARTIN, and NEWSOM, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Case: 17-15720 Date Filed: 04/17/2019 Page: 2 of 10 Alba Lucia Reina Bernal seeks review of decisions by the Board of Immigration Appeals denying (1) her motion requesting that the BIA sua sponte reopen her removal proceedings, (2) her motion for reconsideration of the BIA’s denial of her motion to reopen, and (3) her second motion for sua sponte reopening. I. Reina Bernal is a citizen of Colombia who came to the United States in 1999 on a non-immigrant B visa. The next year she changed her status to that of a non- immigrant student on an F visa, and the year after that she applied for asylum. In July 2001 the Immigration and Naturalization Services rejected her asylum application and charged her as removable for failing to comply with the conditions of her non-immigrant status. She conceded removability before an immigration judge, but renewed her asylum claim and sought statutory withholding of removal. She argued that she had been persecuted, threatened, and beaten by members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for her involvement in political campaigns and her work as an architect for a municipal planning division in Colombia. In November 2002 the IJ denied her application and ordered removal, and Reina Bernal appealed to the BIA. The BIA dismissed her appeal in April 2004. She did not petition this Court for review. 2 Case: 17-15720 Date Filed: 04/17/2019 Page: 3 of 10 Thirteen years later, in June 2017, Reina Bernal filed with the BIA a “motion to rescind removal order and reopen proceedings sua sponte due to eligibility for newly available relief.” She stated that her attorney in the earlier proceeding had not told her of the BIA’s ruling in time for her to petition this Court for review and that her marriage to a United States citizen made her newly eligible for an adjustment of status under section 245(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1255(a). The BIA denied the motion, stating that “becoming potentially eligible for relief from removal based on equities acquired after the issuance of the final administrative order does not constitute an exceptional situation warranting the exercise of [the Board’s] discretion.” Reina Bernal petitioned this Court for review and a week later filed a motion for reconsideration with the BIA. In that motion before the BIA she cited to similar cases in which the BIA had recognized that becoming eligible for previously unavailable relief was an exceptional circumstance that warranted the reopening of removal proceedings, and she argued that her due process and equal protection ...
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