Petitioner Eddie Mendiola petitions this Court to review the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA or Board) denial of his second motion to reopen his removal proceedings. As a threshold matter, Petitioner argues the BIA erred in holding that 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(d) proscribed its jurisdiction to entertain his motion to reopen. Section 1003.2(d) provides:
A motion to reopen or a motion to reconsider [before the BIA] shall not be made by or on behalf of a person who is the subject of exclusion, deportation, or removal proceedings subsequent to his or her departure from the United States. Any departure from the United States, including the deportation or removal of a person who is the subject of exclusion, deportation, or removal proceedings, occurring after the filing of a motion to reopen or a motion to reconsider, shall constitute a withdrawal of such motion.
See also 8 C.F.R. § 1003.23(b)(1) (containing an identical post-departure bar to motions to reopen or reconsider before an immigration judge). Petitioner further contends that, in light of his former attorney’s alleged ineffectiveness, the BIA erred in declining to equitably toll the time and numerical limits on his motion to reopen his removal proceedings found in 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c)(2). Section 1003.2(c)(2) provides: “[A]n alien may file only one motion to reopen removal proceedings (whether before the Board or the Immigration Judge) and that motion must be filed no later than 90 days after the date on which the final administrative decision was rendered in the proceeding sought to be reopened.”
We have jurisdiction over the petition under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(D), which preserves our power to decide “constitutional claims or questions of law raised upon a petition for review.” The questions Petitioner raises in this petition are purely legal in nature and, therefore, fit comfortably within the confines of § 1252(a)(2)(D). Our review is de novo.
Lorenzo v. Mukasey,
I.
Petitioner became a lawful permanent resident of the United States in 1989. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initiated removal proceedings against him in 2004 based on, among other things, two state convictions for possession of steroids. After an administrative hearing, an immigration judge (IJ) ruled Petitioner removable and ordered him removed to Peru.
1
Petitioner appealed the IJ’s decision to the BIA. The BIA affirmed. Petitioner then filed a petition for review with us, which we denied.
Mendiola v. Gonzales,
After he returned to the United States illegally and while in federal custody, Petitioner in 2007 filed his first motion to reopen with the BIA. The BIA determined that 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(d) deprived it of jurisdiction to consider Petitioner’s motion to reopen because the regulation prohibits a person who is the subject of removal proceedings from filing a motion to reopen subsequent to his departure from the country. The BIA also noted that his motion, aside from being jurisdictionally barred, was untimely because Petitioner, contrary to § 1003.2(c)(2), filed it well beyond 90 days after the final 2004 administrative order that made him removable. Petitioner in 2007 filed another petition for review in our court. In his opening brief, Petitioner failed to argue that § 1003.2(d) did not apply to him. We, therefore, refused to consider this argument and deemed Petitioner’s motion barred.
Mendiola v. Mukasey,
At some point after our denial of Petitioner’s second petition for review, he obtained new counsel. New counsel in 2008 filed a second motion to reopen Petitioner’s case with the BIA. Petitioner based his second motion to reopen upon his former attorney’s ineffectiveness and a California court’s reduction of his second steroid possession conviction from a felony to a misdemeanor in 2007. DHS opposed Petitioner’s motion. The BIA ultimately denied Petitioner’s second motion to reopen, concluding again that Petitioner was “precluded by 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(d) from reopening proceedings and [it] laek[ed] authority to reopen or reconsider sua sponte pursuant to 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(a).” The BIA also noted that, in any case, Petition *1306 er’s motion was, again, untimely and now also numerically barred under § 1003.2(c)(2) because “an alien may only file one motion to reopen removal proceedings ... and that motion must be filed no later than 90 days after the date on which the final administrative decision was rendered in the proceeding sought to be reopened.” Petitioner now brings the present petition of review, challenging the BIA’s conclusion that it could not properly consider the arguments raised in his second motion to reopen.
II.
The Attorney General in 1952 first promulgated the regulatory post-departure bar to motions to reopen or reconsider before the BIA and an IJ: “A motion to reopen or a motion to reconsider shall not be made by or on behalf of a person who is the subject of deportation proceedings subsequent to his departure from the United States.” 17 Fed.Reg. 11,469, 11,475 (Dec. 19, 1952) (originally codified at 8 C.F.R. § 6.2); see 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(d) (containing an identical, current limit on motions to reopen and reconsider exclusion, deportation, or removal proceedings before the BIA); id. § 1003.23(b)(1) (containing an identical, current limit on motions to reopen and reconsider exclusion, deportation, or removal proceedings before an IJ); see also In re Armendarez-Mendez, 24 I. & N. Dec. 646, 648 (BIA 2008) (detailing the history of the post-departure bar to motions to reopen and reconsider). In 1961, Congress placed a similar statutory limit on federal courts: “An order of deportation or of exclusion shall not be reviewed by any court if the alien ... has departed from the United States after issuance of the order.” 8 U.S.C. § 1105a(c) (1962) (repealed). Consequently, for fifty years the BIA has consistently followed this “jurisdictional principle,” holding “that reopening is unavailable to any alien who departs the United States after being ordered removed.” Armendarez-Mendez, 211. & N. Dec. at 648.
Congress, in September 1996, passed significant immigration reform known as the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). Pub.L. No. 104-208, 110 Stat. 3009;
see also Rosillo-Puga,
After briefing concluded in this case, we decided
Rosillo-Puga.
In
Rosillo-Puga,
the petitioner was removed to Mexico in 2003 pursuant to an IJ’s order.
Rosillo-Puga,
Relying on
William v. Gonzales,
In
Rosillo-Puga,
we disagreed with the
William
majority and, instead, reached the same conclusion as the
William
dissent. Employing the
Chevron
framework for reviewing an agency’s construction of the statute it administers,
Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc.,
*1309 III.
Prior to oral argument, we asked the parties in this case to be prepared to discuss Rosillo-Puga’s application. Petitioner conceded at oral argument that Rosillo-Puga divests the BIA of its sua sponte authority as set forth in 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(a) to reopen his proceedings because he had departed the United States. As best we can discern, however, Petitioner contends Rosillo-Puga did not extend the post-departure bar’s application to motions to reopen filed by aliens pursuant to 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c) where the motion alleges ineffective assistance of counsel rising to the level of a due process violation. 6 Petitioner declined our invitation to file supplemental briefing on that question.
In pertinent part, 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c)(2) states, except in limited instances inapplicable here, “an alien may file only one motion to reopen removal proceedings (whether before the Board or the [IJ]) and that motion must be filed no later than 90 days after the date on which the final administrative decision was rendered in the proceeding sought to be reopened.” Notably, this mirrors the language in 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(c)(7) that we examined in Rosillo-Puga. We concluded in Rosillo-Puga that Congress’s provision for one motion to reopen within 90 days of *1310 removal in those statutory subsections does not alter the valid continued operation of the regulatory post-departure bar to motions to reopen. Id. at 1156. We upheld the BIA’s interpretation that the regulatory post-departure bar divests it and an IJ of jurisdiction to consider motions to reopen the removal proceedings of deported or departed aliens, even where statute provides an alien may file one motion to reopen within 90 days. Id. Moreover, the entire panel in Rosillo-Puga agreed that, at a minimum, because the post-departure bar states “ ‘[a] motion to reopen or to reconsider shall not be made by ... a person ... subsequent to his or her departure from the United States’ .... an alien may not move for reconsideration or reopening following departure.” Id. at 1170 (Lucero, J., dissenting). As § 1003.2(c)(2) details the requirements with which an alien filing a motion to reopen must comply, it seems the entire panel agreed that the post-departure bar applied, at the very least, to subsection (c). 7
We may not overrule another panel of this court. “We are bound by the precedent of prior panels absent en banc consideration or a superseding contrary decision by the Supreme Court.”
U.S. v. Smith,
We are not alone in our approach to Petitioner’s arguments. In
Canchola-Velez v. Filip,
The petition for review is DENIED.
Notes
. Aliens convicted of an aggravated felony are removable. 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii). An "aggravated felony” includes "a drug trafficking crime (as defined in section 924(c) of Title 18).” 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(B). In turn, a "drug trafficking crime means any felony punishable under the Controlled Substances Act." 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(2). The Controlled Substances Act categorizes anabolic steroids as a controlled substance. 21 U.S.C. § 218. It also prohibits the possession of a controlled substance, unless validly authorized by a practitioner, and punishes possession of a controlled substance after a prior state drug offense conviction by up to two years in prison. 21 U.S.C. § 844(a). A "drug offense” is "any offense which proscribes the possession, distribution, manufacture, cultivation, sale ... [oí] any substance the possession of which is prohibited under this subchapter.” 21 U.S.C § 844(c). The IJ, therefore, concluded Petitioner was removable as an aggravated felon.
. In August 2008, this charge was dismissed without prejudice on the Government’s motion pursuant to Fed.R.Crim.P. 48(a).
. Other circuits have wrestled with the meaning of the regulatory post-departure bar, but the Fourth Circuit is the only other circuit to have addressed whether it conflicts with 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(c)(7). The First Circuit in
Pena-Muriel v. Gonzales,
. The entire panel in
Rosillo-Puga
agreed that the post-departure bar, assuming its validity, prohibited motions to reopen filed by or on behalf of those aliens who, like Rosillo-Puga, had departed the country after the conclusion of their removal proceedings.
See Rosillo-Puga,
. In
Rosillo-Puga,
Judge O'Brien issued a concurring opinion, but joined the Court's opinion (per Anderson, J.) in full to avoid leaving this issue unresolved in our circuit.
Rosillo-Puga,
*1309
Judge Lucero issued a dissent, concluding 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(c)(7) "unambiguously guarantee[s] every alien the right to file ... one motion to reopen removal proceedings, regardless of whether the alien has departed from the United States.”
Id.
at 1162 (Lucero, J., dissenting). For this reason, he would have invalidated the post-departure bar under the first step of
Chevron. Id.
(Lucero, J., dissenting). Judge Lucero additionally noted that the Supreme Court’s decision in
Dada v. Mukasey,
- U.S. -,
. We note, for the sake of clarity, that 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c) sets forth the procedural restrictions and requirements for motions to reopen filed by or on behalf of aliens before the BIA. It also details specific exceptions, which are not relevant to this case, to its time and numerical limits on motions to reopen. It does not, however, provide a specific mechanism for challenging removal proceedings on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel. But the BIA has stated ineffective assistance may constitute "a valid ground for reopening a deportation case in egregious circumstances.”
In re Lozada,
191 I. & N. Dec. 637, 639 (BIA 1988),
aff'd,
. We realize, as discussed above, that the panel disagreed as to the validity of the regulatory post-departure bar in light of 8 U.S.C § 1229a(c)(7) and as to what effect, if any, the regulatory post-departure bar had upon the BIA and an IJ's sua sponte authority to reopen removal proceedings. But we believe it is significant that, as a threshold matter, the entire panel agreed the post-departure bar, if valid, would prevent aliens who have left the country following the completion of their removal, deportation, or exclusion proceedings from filing motions to reopen on their behalf.
