PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT ______________ No. 19-3705 ______________ SOTERO MEJIA ROMERO, Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ______________ On Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (A075-294-346) Immigration Judge: John P. Ellington ______________ Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) March 23, 2021 ______________ Before: HARDIMAN, GREENAWAY, JR., and BIBAS, Circuit Judges. (Opinion Filed: May 5, 2021) Marcia B. Ibrahim Law Office of Marcia Binder Ibrahim 222 South Broad Street Lansdale, PA 19446 Counsel for Petitioner Jeffrey Bossert Clark Emily Anne Radford David Schor United States Department of Justice Office of Immigration Litigation P.O. Box 878 Ben Franklin Station Washington, DC 20044 Counsel for Respondent ______________ OPINION ______________ GREENAWAY, JR., Circuit Judge. Sotero Mejia Romero seeks review of the order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) dismissing his appeal of an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) decision denying his application for withholding of removal. In addition to adopting and affirming the IJ’s decision denying withholding of removal, the BIA also rejected Mejia Romero’s challenge to the IJ’s jurisdiction over his case. Before us, Mejia Romero only appeals that jurisdictional issue. Finding no jurisdictional defect, we will deny the petition for review. 2 A. Background On September 25, 1997, Mejia Romero, a native and citizen of Guatemala, was granted voluntary departure after having entered the United States without being admitted or paroled. When Mejia Romero failed to leave the United States as provided in that order, a removal order was entered on March 25, 1998. That order was executed on May 27, 2011, when Mejia Romero was removed from the United States to his home country of Guatemala. He returned almost immediately to the United States. When he was taken into custody on May 17, 2018, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) notified Mejia Romero of its intent to reinstate his prior removal order, pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1231(a)(5). In response, Mejia Romero “express[ed] a fear of returning to the country of removal,” 8 C.F.R. § 208.31(a), and as required he was referred to an asylum officer for a reasonable fear interview, 8 C.F.R. § 208.31(b). The purpose of the reasonable fear interview is to give the alien an opportunity to “establish[] a reasonable possibility that he or she would be persecuted on account of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion, or a reasonable possibility that he or she would be tortured in the country of removal.”1 8 C.F.R. § 208.31(c). 1 Faced only with a jurisdictional challenge, we need not discuss the facts underlying Mejia Romero’s fear of persecution or torture. 3 Finding that Mejia Romero had “a reasonable fear of persecution or torture,” the asylum officer referred the matter to an IJ, as required by 8 C.F.R. § 208.31(e). A.R. 455. The Notice of Referral to Immigration Judge2 provided the place of the hearing before the IJ but noted that the date and time were “To Be Determined.” …
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