Case: 20-61133 Document: 00516490997 Page: 1 Date Filed: 09/30/2022 United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit FILED September 30, 2022 No. 20-61133 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk Hortencia Ruiz-Perez, Petitioner, versus Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney General, Respondent. Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals No. A 028 896 887 Before Smith, Duncan, and Oldham, Circuit Judges. Jerry E. Smith, Circuit Judge: Does cancelation of an alien’s removal order count as immigration “relief”? Cancelation of removal provides benefits superior to asylum’s benefits—which we have deemed relief. Cancelation, it follows, is also relief. Hortencia Ruiz-Perez petitions for review of a decision that she is ineligible to have her removal order canceled. But Ruiz-Perez is ineligible for any relief because her removal order was reinstated after she illegally re- entered the country following a prior removal. Having concluded that can- celation of removal is relief, we deny her petition for review. Case: 20-61133 Document: 00516490997 Page: 2 Date Filed: 09/30/2022 No. 20-61133 I. A. Ruiz-Perez is a Mexican citizen who seeks permanent U.S. residence. She first came to the United States in 1999. At the border, she gave immi- gration officers a false name. The officers arrested her and returned her to Mexico. The next day, Ruiz-Perez again tried to cross the border. She told immigration officers she was an American citizen. The officers knew she was lying, so they arrested her again. This time, the government charged her with “Attempted Illegal Entry by False and Misleading Representation.” She pleaded guilty, and a federal court sentenced her to 75 days’ imprisonment. The Immigration and Naturalization Service ordered Ruiz-Perez re- moved. It deemed her inadmissible because she had lied about having U.S. citizenship. It removed Ruiz-Perez to Mexico after her incarceration. Two years later, Ruiz-Perez illegally reentered the United States. She settled with her husband—a lawful permanent U.S. resident—and oldest son near San Antonio. They lived there together for about seven years and had two more children. Ruiz-Perez says she and her children endured serious abuse from her husband. Most of the abuse she recounts happened in the United States, though she describes two incidents in Mexico. In one of the U.S. incidents, Ruiz-Perez’s youngest son suffered a serious injury. After that, Ruiz-Perez separated from her husband and has not lived with him, although she sometimes sees him in public in the San Antonio area, where she has continued to live for more than a decade. A few years ago, however, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office arrested Ruiz-Perez for assaulting her neighbor’s children during a property-line 2 Case: 20-61133 Document: 00516490997 Page: 3 Date Filed: 09/30/2022 No. 20-61133 dispute. The district attorney charged Ruiz-Perez with a crime but later dis- missed the charges after he could not convince a witness to testify. The arrest alerted immigration officials to Ruiz-Perez’s presence in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security reinstated Ruiz-Perez’s removal order. It concluded she was eligible for reinstatement because …
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