In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 17-1568 GABRIELA RODRIGUEZ, Petitioner, v. JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS III, Attorney General of the United States, Respondent. ____________________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals No. A087-231-137 ____________________ ARGUED OCTOBER 23, 2017 — DECIDED NOVEMBER 22, 2017 ____________________ Before BAUER and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges, and DARROW, District Judge.* DARROW, District Judge. This case presents a question closely connected with one this Court recently decided: when * Of the Central District of Illinois, sitting by designation. 2 No. 17-1568 does a conviction for violating a protective order make a per- son ineligible for the cancellation of removal proceedings? See Garcia-Hernandez v. Boente, 847 F.3d 869 (7th Cir. 2017). Gabriela Rodriguez was placed in removal proceedings— that is, she was scheduled to be deported—some 10 years after she entered this country from Mexico without inspection by United States authorities. She sought cancellation of her re- moval on the ground that it would cause her five dependent children, whom she raises alone, exceptional hardship. See 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b)(1). One of her children is a cancer survivor who requires routine doctor visits to monitor his remission. The immigration judge who handled Rodriguez’s case de- cided that she was statutorily ineligible for cancellation be- cause she had been convicted of violating an order of protec- tion in 2001. See 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(E)(ii). The Board of Im- migration Appeals affirmed this decision. Because Rodriguez is ineligible for cancellation, we agree, and deny the petition for review. I. Factual and Procedural Background Rodriguez entered the United States without inspection on January 11, 1999. On February 2, 2000, her boyfriend, Ma- nuel Ramirez, sought a restraining order against her in Dodge County, Wisconsin, claiming that he feared for his safety after episodes of domestic violence. The circuit court granted his request and issued a temporary restraining order pending a hearing. In a one-page form order, the court indicated that Ramirez was in imminent danger of physical harm, and or- dered that Rodriguez avoid his residence and any personal contact with him. No. 17-1568 3 Rodriguez testified before the immigration judge that be- cause she had nowhere else to go, and because she had two small children and all her belongings in the apartment she had been sharing with Ramirez, she did not leave. She was charged by criminal complaint on February 14, 2000, with knowingly violating a temporary restraining order. Wis. Stat. § 813.12(8)(a). The complainant, a police officer, indicated that Ramirez had met with him on February 5 and said that Rodri- guez refused to leave the apartment. Ramirez also told the of- ficer that he and Rodriguez had run into each other on the street and had an argument. Rodriguez pleaded no contest to the charge on April 6, 2001, and to a charge of misdemeanor bail jumping, Wis. Stat. § 946.49(1)(a), which is not at issue in this appeal. The Department of Homeland Security charged Rodri- ...
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