Helen Guinooban v. Eric Holder, Jr. , 542 F. App'x 614 ( 2013 )

FILED
NOT FOR PUBLICATION OCT 17 2013
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
HELEN FRANCISCO GUINOOBAN, No. 09-72688
Petitioner, Agency No. A072-305-504
v.
MEMORANDUM*
ERIC H. HOLDER, Jr., Attorney General,
Respondent.
On Petition for Review of an Order of the
Board of Immigration Appeals
Submitted October 10, 2013**
Pasadena, California
Before: PAEZ and HURWITZ, Circuit Judges, and ERICKSON, Chief District
Judge.***
Helen Francisco Guinooban, a native of the Philippines, petitions for review of
the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals affirming an order of removal.
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
**
The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
***
The Honorable Ralph R. Erickson, Chief District Judge for the U.S.
District Court for the District of North Dakota, sitting by designation.
Guinooban argues that she obtained derivative citizenship through her deceased father,
who became a naturalized citizen on December 9, 1992. We deny the petition.
Guinooban was born in the Philippines on June 4, 1946 to parents who were not
United States citizens. When Guinooban was born, the Philippines were an outlying
possession of the United States. Rabang v. INS, 35 F.3d 1449, 1450–51 (9th Cir.
1994). She therefore did not acquire citizenship at birth under former section 201(i)
of the Nationality Act of 1940, which applied only to “persons born outside the United
States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is a citizen of the United
States.” 8 U.S.C. § 601(i) (1946) (repealed 1952). Nor did Guinooban derive United
States citizenship through her father’s 1992 naturalization because she was forty-six
years old at the time. See 8 U.S.C. § 1432(a)(4) (1988) (providing that a child derives
United States citizenship through a naturalized parent only if the child had not reached
his or her eighteenth birthday on the date of the parent’s naturalization).
Counsel for Guinooban has moved to withdraw, avowing that she cannot
establish contact with her client. That motion is granted.
PETITION FOR REVIEW DENIED; MOTION TO WITHDRAW
GRANTED.
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