Case: 18-10998 Date Filed: 10/25/2018 Page: 1 of 8 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 18-10998 Non-Argument Calendar ________________________ Agency No. A089-407-931 YVES MARBENIG SALAS-MONSALVE, Petitioner, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ________________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals ________________________ (October 25, 2018) Before MARTIN, ROSENBAUM, and JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Case: 18-10998 Date Filed: 10/25/2018 Page: 2 of 8 Yves Marbenig Salas-Monsalve petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) decision affirming the immigration judge’s (“IJ”) order denying Salas a waiver of removability under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(1) as a matter of discretion. The government moves to dismiss the petition for lack of jurisdiction. For the reasons explained below, we grant the government’s motion. I. Salas, a native and citizen of Venezuela, was admitted to the United States in July 2000 as a non-immigrant visitor. In October 2007, she used a fraudulent Cuban birth certificate to obtain status as a lawful permanent resident under the Cuban Adjustment Act. Several years later, immigration officials discovered that she was not a Cuban citizen and instituted removal proceedings. She was charged with being removable because at the time of adjustment of status she was inadmissible for having sought to obtain status by fraud or misrepresentation. See 8 U.S.C. §§ 1182(a)(6)(C)(i), § 1227(a)(1)(A). Salas conceded removability and applied to have the grounds of inadmissibility waived under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(1)(H). The IJ denied Salas a fraud waiver under § 1227(a)(1)(H) and ordered her removed. While the IJ found that she was statutorily eligible for a fraud waiver, the IJ denied relief as a matter of discretion after weighing the equities of her situation pursuant to the BIA’s decision in Matter of Tijam, 22 I. & N. Dec. 408, 2 Case: 18-10998 Date Filed: 10/25/2018 Page: 3 of 8 412–13 (BIA 1998). The IJ found that, while Salas’s case presented “several substantial equities,” including long-term, productive, and law-abiding residence in the United States, the positive equities were outweighed by her knowing participation in “an ongoing scheme of fraud and misrepresentation.” Specifically, the IJ explained, she played a role in her husband’s sham marriage to another person to obtain immigration status and then submitted the fraudulent Cuban birth certificate on which her status as a lawful permanent resident was based. The BIA affirmed the IJ’s decision, agreeing that Salas’s “involvement in multiple fraudulent schemes to obtain immigration benefits outweighs the equities that she has presented.” Salas now petitions this Court for review. She raises two main issues: (1) whether the BIA applied the proper standard in denying her application for a fraud waiver; and (2) whether the BIA’s consideration of certain factors, including hardship to her or her family, in exercising its discretion to grant or deny a fraud waiver is “ultra vires to 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(1)(H)” and contrary to legislative intent. The government has moved to dismiss Salas’s petition for lack of jurisdiction, arguing ...
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