NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 21a0297n.06 No. 20-3987 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED JOSE JUAN MENDOZA-JOVEL, ) Jun 22, 2021 ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk Petitioner, ) ) v. ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW ) FROM THE BOARD OF ) MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, ) IMMIGRATION APPEALS Respondent. ) ) Before: ROGERS, WHITE, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges. HELENE N. WHITE, Circuit Judge. Petitioner Jose Juan Mendoza-Jovel appeals the denial of his application for cancellation of removal. He contends that his case was improperly transferred from the Memphis Immigration Court to the Louisville Immigration Court and that the Louisville court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction to rule on the merits of his case. We disagree. I. Mendoza-Jovel, a native and citizen of Honduras, entered the United States in 2002 without being admitted or paroled after inspection by an immigration officer. In 2013, the Department of Homeland Security commenced removal proceedings by filing a Notice to Appear (NTA) with the Immigration Court in Chicago, Illinois. The NTA asserted that Mendoza-Jovel was removable under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i) as an “alien present in the United States without being admitted or paroled.” A.R. 856. No. 20-3987, Mendoza-Jovel v. Garland In March 2014, Mendoza-Jovel appeared for an initial Master Calendar hearing in the Chicago Immigration Court. At that hearing, he presented a motion to transfer venue—which conceded removability and designated Honduras as the country of removal—and an application for cancellation of removal. In the motion, Mendoza-Jovel requested that venue be transferred to “the Memphis, TN Immigration Court (Louisville, KY Docket),” the “Court closest and most convenient to his place of residence . . . .” A.R. 842. At the time, there was no Louisville Immigration Court, but the Memphis Immigration Court exercised administrative control over a docket of Louisville cases, allowing petitioners to attend hearings remotely at a Louisville location. The motion to transfer noted that Mendoza-Jovel was requesting the change because he lived less than twenty miles from Louisville but around 285 miles from Chicago. A.R. 842 n.1; see also A.R. 85 (Mendoza-Jovel informing Chicago Immigration Judge that he “was hoping to get my court in Louisville because I live in Indiana”). The Chicago Immigration Judge granted the motion: I’m going to grant your request to transfer your case. The Court in charge of Louisville is Memphis, and they will try and schedule you for a further hearing in Louisville. . . . So, I’ll give you the order transferring your case, and then the Court in Louisville will notify you when to come in. A.R. 88.1 The Chicago Immigration Court subsequently entered an order stating that “venue is changed to Memphis TN (Louisville docket).” A.R. 839. Later that month, the Memphis Immigration Court issued a Notice of Hearing, informing Mendoza-Jovel that he should appear for a “master hearing” on January 11, 2016, at a hearing room located at a Louisville, Kentucky address. A.R. 838. Mendoza-Jovel attended the hearing 1 During this hearing, the Immigration Judge repeatedly recognized that …
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