Mojica v. Holder

The years of residency of a petitioner’s relative will not be imputed to the petitioner for purposes of satisfying the five-year lawful permanent residence requirement of 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(a)(1).

Lisbeth Duque Mojica sought a petition for review, challenging the Board of Immigration Appeals’s (“BIA”) affirmance of the immigration judge’s decision, which denied cancellation of removal. In its original decision, the Ninth Circuit granted Duque Mojica’s petition for review, relying on Mercado-Zazueta v. Holder for the proposition that the legal status of Duque Mojica’s father could be imputed on Duque Mojica to satisfy the five-year residence requirement under 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(a)(1). The United States Supreme Court then vacated the Ninth Circuit’s decision, and remanded the case for reconsideration in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Holder v. Martinez Gutierrez. Because (1) Mercado-Zazueta no longer controls the applicability of imputation under 8 U.S.C. § 1229b and (2) Duque Mojica does not meet the lawful permanent residence requirement on her own, the Court affirmed the BIA’s denial of cancellation of removal. DENIED.