UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 19-1237 MILIYON A. ETHIOPIS, Petitioner, v. WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. Argued: September 10, 2020 Decided: October 14, 2020 Before DIAZ, THACKER, and HARRIS, Circuit Judges. Petition for review denied by unpublished per curiam opinion. ARGUED: David Carlos Baluarte, WASHINGTON & LEE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW, Lexington, Virginia, for Petitioner. Joseph D. Hardy, Jr., UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. ON BRIEF: Joseph H. Hunt, Assistant Attorney General, Anthony C. Payne, Assistant Director, Civil Division, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. PER CURIAM: Miliyon Ethiopis (“Petitioner”), a native of Ethiopia, petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) denying his second motion to reopen his removal proceedings as untimely and number-barred. 1 In his second motion to reopen, Petitioner argues that the Ethiopian government discriminatorily denationalized him by refusing to issue him a passport in 2011, and that his denationalization constitutes changed country conditions that allow him to file his second motion despite its non-compliance with the time and number restrictions set out in 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c)(2). Because Petitioner could have raised this exact argument when he filed his first motion to reopen in December 2011 -- six and a half years before he filed his second motion -- we deny the petition for review. I. Petitioner was born in Ethiopia in 1973 to a father of Eritrean ethnicity 2 and a mother of Oromo ethnicity. 3 His family owned several businesses in Ethiopia, including a successful dry cleaning business. After a border war erupted between Ethiopia and Eritrea in 1998, the Ethiopian government arrested and deported Petitioner’s father and confiscated the family’s businesses, money, and property. For the next three years, 1 A second motion to reopen is number-barred pursuant to 8 C.F.R. §1003.2(c)(2) because that section allows a party to “file only one motion to reopen deportation or exclusion proceedings.” 2 Eritrea is an African country that shares Ethiopia’s northern border. 3 The Oromo are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia. 2 Petitioner frequently questioned the Ethiopian government about his father’s deportation and the seizure of his family’s assets, which eventually led to the Ethiopian government arresting Petitioner and detaining him for three months. Petitioner recounts that during the time he was detained, he was beaten, subjected to harsh interrogations, harassed because of his Eritrean heritage, and accused of collaborating with the Eritrean government. Once released, Petitioner decided to “leave Ethiopia for good,” but the Ethiopian government confiscated his passport and refused to issue him an exit visa. A.R. 48. 4 As a result, he was unable to leave the country legally. Undeterred, Petitioner claims that he used a fake passport to board a flight out of Ethiopia and arrived in the United States on July 22, 2001. Petitioner’s lengthy immigration proceedings ...
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