Jaime Cordero-Guerra v. Attorney General United States


NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _____________ No. 16-4088 _____________ JAIME CORDERO-GUERRA, Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Respondent _____________ On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (B.I.A. No. A077-256-470) ______________ Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) June 8, 2017 ______________ Before: CHAGARES, VANASKIE, and FUENTES, Circuit Judges (Filed: November 16, 2017) ______________ OPINION * ______________ VANASKIE, Circuit Judge. * This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not constitute binding precedent. This immigration appeal centers on whether Petitioner Jaime Cordero-Guerra has presented sufficient evidence to undo a 19-year-old default removal order. Cordero- Guerra came to the United States from Guatemala at age 13, and is now the father of two U.S. citizens. He has no criminal record. But in 1998, a removal order in absentia was entered against him after he failed to appear at a removal hearing. In 2015, Cordero- Guerra hired an attorney who helped him file an unsuccessful motion to reopen his 1998 case. On appeal, Cordero-Guerra makes two arguments in support of his motion—he never received notice of the 1998 hearing, and changed country conditions warrant relief. To receive relief, however, Cordero-Guerra must present evidence supporting his claims. A sufficient level of evidentiary support has not been brought forward, and we will therefore deny Cordero-Guerra’s petition for review. I. Jaime Cordero-Guerra Guerra was born in Guatemala in 1975. At age 13, Cordero-Guerra entered the United States without inspection and settled in Horsham, Pennsylvania, with a brother who had also entered the United States. When Cordero-Guerra was 21 or 22, he traveled to Guatemala for approximately one year. Upon his return in 1998, he was apprehended by U.S. Border Control. Removal proceedings began. Cordero-Guerra posted bond after he provided the Government with his Horsham address, and he traveled back to Pennsylvania. The Immigration Court scheduled a removal hearing and mailed notice to the Horsham address. Cordero-Guerra failed to appear and the Immigration Court entered a removal order in absentia against him. 2 In the midst of this 1997-98 period, Cordero-Guerra’s girlfriend, Milagro de Jesus Alarcon Ortega, gave birth in Guatemala to the couple’s first child. Cordero-Guerra returned to Guatemala in 2001 to marry Ortega. His second return to the United States occurred without incident. Ortega gave birth to the couple’s second child in Guatemala, then followed Cordero-Guerra to the United States with the two children in tow. In 2007 and 2012, the couple gave birth to two children in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Those children are U.S. citizens. In 2015, as the United States announced a later-scuttled administrative program to defer enforcement actions against certain undocumented aliens who were parents of U.S. citizens, Cordero-Guerra hired an attorney to try to clear up his immigration status. With his attorney’s assistance, he contacted the Immigration Court and filed a motion to reopen his removal proceedings to rescind the in absentia removal order. Cordero-Guerra also sought asylum, ...

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