By: Derek Hawkins//March 19, 2018//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: Claudia Melesio-Rodriguez v. Jefferson B. Sessions III
Case No.: 16-1781
Officials: BAUER, FLAUM, and MANION, Circuit Judges.
Focus: Immigration – Jurisdiction
An immigration judge ordered Petitioner Claudia Melesio‐Rodriguez removed to Mexico because she had committed multiple controlled‐substance offenses. Petitioner accepted the removal order as final and waived her right to appeal it. Nevertheless, she almost simultaneously appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals and filed a motion for reconsideration with the immigration judge. Petitioner never asked us to review the Board’s dismissal of her first appeal. This petition challenges the Board’s eventual dismissal of her reconsideration appeal.
Petitioner principally argues that she did not knowingly and intelligently waive her appeal rights in the initial hearing. But because Petitioner is a criminal alien and the waiver question is factual in nature, we lack jurisdiction to answer it under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(C). That leaves us with no choice but to dismiss her petition. For the foregoing reasons, the petition for review is DISMISSED.
Dismissed