Jose Rodriguez-Saragosa v. Jefferson Sessions, III

STEPHEN A. HIGGINSON, Circuit Judge:

Jose Luis Rodriguez-Saragosa's application for cancellation of removal was denied for reasons that have since become legally infirm. But rather than challenge his removal from abroad, Rodriguez-Saragosa reentered the country illegally. More than a decade later, immigration authorities re-apprehended him, and he moved the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to reopen his original removal proceedings.

The difficulty, however, is 8 U.S.C. § 1231 (a)(5), which provides: "If the [Secretary of Homeland Security] finds that an alien has reentered the United States…