United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit No. 19-1859 RAFAEL EMILIO FRANJUL-SOTO, Petitioner, v. WILLIAM P. BARR, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. PETITION FOR REVIEW OF AN ORDER OF THE BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS Before Howard, Chief Judge, Torruella and Barron, Circuit Judges. Patrick N. Long and Patrick Long Law Firm, P.C., on brief for petitioner. Ilana J. Snyder, Trial Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Immigration Litigation, Joseph H. Hunt, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, and Sabatino F. Leo, Senior Litigation Counsel, on brief for respondent. August 24, 2020 BARRON, Circuit Judge. Rafael Emilio Franjul-Soto ("Franjul-Soto"), a citizen of the Dominican Republic, petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA") that denied his motion to reconsider his motion to reopen removal proceedings. We deny the petition for review. Franjul-Soto was born in the Dominican Republic in 1965 and entered the United States without inspection in 1988. On April 4, 2016, the United States Department of Homeland Security ("DHS") served Franjul-Soto with a Notice to Appear, which charged him with being removable from the United States under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i). The Notice to Appear listed the address of the Immigration Court, but indicated that the date and time of Franjul- Soto's hearing were "[t]o be set."1 Three days later, DHS served Franjul-Soto with a letter entitled "Notice of Hearing," which specified that the hearing would take place on April 11, 2016, at 8:30 a.m. Franjul-Soto attended all removal hearings. The Immigration Judge ("IJ") sustained the charge of removability 1 The parties appear to question whether the Notice to Appear listed the Immigration Court's address. It did. The document stated: "YOU ARE ORDERED to appear before an immigration judge of the United States Department of Justice at: JFK Federal Building 15 New Sudbury St, Room 320 Boston MA 02203." under § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i) and denied Franjul-Soto's application for cancellation of removal in a written order dated October 19, 2016. Franjul-Soto then filed a Notice of Appeal to the BIA. In March 2017, while his BIA appeal was pending, Franjul- Soto filed a Violence Against Women Act ("VAWA") self-petition with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS"). Franjul-Soto claimed in it that he was the spouse of an abusive United States citizen and that he qualified for a discretionary adjustment of status to that of lawful permanent resident under 8 U.S.C. § 1154(a)(1)(A)(iii)(I). On February 16, 2018, the BIA dismissed Franjul-Soto's appeal from the IJ's order of removal. Franjul-Soto then moved the BIA to reopen removal proceedings based on his pending VAWA self-petition. The BIA denied Franjul-Soto's motion to reopen on October 19, 2018, and, on July 26, 2019, the BIA denied his motion to reconsider. This petition for review followed. Franjul-Soto first argues that the IJ lacked jurisdiction to adjudicate his removability -- and thus that his removal order must be vacated -- because the Notice to Appear was deficient in omitting the date and time of his initial removal hearing.2 The ...
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