Ai Ting Li v. Holder

09-1972-ag Li v. Holder BIA A077 297 765 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT SUMMARY ORDER RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY CITING A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL. 1 At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals 2 for the Second Circuit, held at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan 3 United States Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street, in the City of 4 New York, on the 19 th day of May, two thousand ten. 5 6 PRESENT: 7 JOSÉ A. CABRANES, 8 REENA RAGGI, 9 PETER W. HALL, 10 Circuit Judges. 11 _________________________________________ 12 13 AI TING LI, A.K.A. AI QIN LI, 14 Petitioner, 15 16 v. 09-1972-ag 17 NAC 18 ERIC H. HOLDER, JR., UNITED STATES 19 ATTORNEY GENERAL, 20 Respondent. 21 _________________________________________ 22 23 FOR PETITIONER: Ai Ting Li, New York, New York. 24 25 FOR RESPONDENT: Tony West, Assistant Attorney 26 General, Civil Division; Stephen J. 27 Flynn, Assistant Director, Office of 28 Immigration Litigation; Jeffrey R. 29 Meyer, Trial Attorney, Office of 30 Immigration Litigation, United 31 States Department of Justice, 32 Washington, D.C. 1 UPON DUE CONSIDERATION of this petition for review of a 2 Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) decision, it is hereby 3 ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED, that the petition for review 4 is DENIED. 5 Petitioner Ai Ting Li, a native and citizen of the 6 People’s Republic of China, seeks review of an April 10, 7 2009, order of the BIA denying her motion to reconsider. In 8 re Ai Ting Li, a.k.a. Ai Qin Li, No. A077 297 765 (B.I.A. 9 April 10, 2009). We assume the parties’ familiarity with 10 the underlying facts and procedural history in this case. 11 This Court reviews the BIA’s denial of a motion to 12 reconsider for abuse of discretion. See Kaur v. BIA, 413 13 F.3d 232, 233 (2d Cir. 2005) (per curiam); Jin Ming Liu v. 14 Gonzales, 439 F.3d 109, 111 (2d Cir. 2006). A motion to 15 reconsider must specify errors of fact or law in the BIA’s 16 prior decision and be supported with pertinent authority. 17 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(b)(1). Here, the BIA did not abuse its 18 discretion in denying Li’s motion to reconsider. In denying 19 that motion, the BIA reconsidered its prior decision in 20 light of Matter of Compean, 24 I. & N. Dec. 710 (A.G. 2009), 21 concluding that the change in law did not affect its prior 22 decision. The BIA reasonably concluded that by filing her 2 1 motion to reopen more than 90 days after her discovery of 2 the alleged attorney misconduct, Li failed to exercise due 3 diligence. This conclusion is consistent with our prior 4 decisions. See, e.g., Rashid v. Mukasey, 533 F.3d 127, 132 5 (2d Cir. 2008) (in order to warrant equitable tolling, an 6 alien is required to demonstrate “due diligence” in pursuing 7 his claims during “both the period of time before the 8 ineffective assistance of counsel was or should have been 9 discovered and the period from that point until the motion 10 to reopen is filed.”). Accordingly, the BIA did not abuse 11 its discretion when it found “no legal or factual defect” in 12 its prior decision denying Li’s untimely motion to reopen 13 based on ineffective assistance of counsel. * * In June 2009, current Attorney General Holder vacated the former Attorney General’s decision in Matter of Compean, directing the agency to “apply the pre-Compean standards to all pending and future motions to reopen based upon ineffective assistance of counsel, regardless of when such motions were filed.” Matter of Compean, 25 I. & N. Dec. 1, 3 (A.G. 2009). Nonetheless, the BIA’s reliance on Compean does not affect the outcome of this case. In order to establish ineffective assistance of counsel under both the Compean and pre-Compean standards, an alien is required to demonstrate that she exercised due diligence in pursuing her ineffective assistance of counsel claim. See Jian Yun Zheng v. U.S. Dep’t of Justice, 409 F.3d 43, 47 (2d Cir. 2005). Here, the BIA denied Li’s motion based on her failure to demonstrate that she exercised due diligence – a dispositive reason for denying a motion to reopen based on ineffective assistance of counsel independent of the vacated Compean decision. 3 1 For the foregoing reasons, the petition for review is 2 DENIED. As we have completed our review, any stay of 3 removal that the Court previously granted in this petition 4 is VACATED, and any pending motion for a stay of removal in 5 this petition is DISMISSED as moot. Any pending request for 6 oral argument in this petition is DENIED in accordance with 7 Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 34(a)(2), and Second 8 Circuit Local Rule 34.1(b). 9 FOR THE COURT: 10 Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe, Clerk 11 12 4