NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 21a0199n.06 No. 20-3552 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED ) Apr 20, 2021 IMELDA LOPEZ-SOTO, DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk ) Petitioner, ) ) v. ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW FROM ) THE UNITED STATES BOARD OF MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, ) IMMIGRATION APPEALS Respondent. ) ) BEFORE: DAUGHTREY, MOORE, and THAPAR, Circuit Judges. DAUGHTREY, J., delivered the opinion of the court in which MOORE, J., joined. THAPAR, J. (pg. 13), delivered a separate opinion concurring only in the judgment. MARTHA CRAIG DAUGHTREY, Circuit Judge. In an era in which it is difficult to find any issue upon which a large percentage of Americans agree, few people would dispute that our nation’s immigration system is broken and is need of a structural overhaul. Admittedly, a not- insignificant number of Americans believe that any change to our immigration statutes should result in shutting our borders to almost all individuals, or at least to all potential immigrants who are not blond-haired and blue-eyed. A June 2020 survey by the Pew Research Center found, however, that approximately 74% of people surveyed felt that our immigration laws should be amended to provide legal status to the approximately 650,000 individuals now in the United States who were brought illegally to this country as children. See pewresearch.org/fact- tank/2020/06/17/americans-broadly-support-legal-status-for-immigrants-brought-to-the-u-s- illegally-as-children/ (last visited Apr. 2, 2021). That same study further found that approximately No. 20-3552, Lopez-Soto v. Garland 75% of the surveyed individuals supported a pathway to legal status for the approximately 10.5 million other immigrants who now reside in the United States without recognized legal status. Id. Until the immigration system is reformed, however, individuals like petitioner Imelda Lopez-Soto—who has resided in this country for 21 consecutive years, who has remained employed and paid her federal income taxes when required, who has committed no crimes other than driving on a revoked license, and who has given birth to and raised two admittedly outstanding young boys who are United States citizens—remains subject to removal to a country from which she fled for greater opportunity and for a chance to participate in the so-called American Dream. She now petitions this court for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) that denied her requests for withholding of removal, protection under the United Nations Convention Against Torture (CAT), and cancellation of removal. Constrained by precedent and by our immigration laws as they now exist, we must deny her petition. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND In March 2000, when she was 19 years old, Imelda Lopez-Soto, a citizen of Mexico, entered the United States illegally at Nogales, Arizona. Later that month, she made her way to Madison, Tennessee, north of downtown Nashville, and since that time, has remained employed, first at American Appliance where she prepared grills for shipping, and then at Trust Building Services for whom she cleaned offices. Approximately three years after her entry into the United States, she became involved with her partner, Amado De Dios …
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals