Case Summaries

Immigration Law

[11/20] Kalilu v. Mukasey
Petition for review of BIA decision is dismissed in part, denied in part, and granted in part where: 1) there was no appellate jurisdiction to review petitioner's claim to asylum and request for voluntary departure; 2) there was no abuse of discretion in the denial of a motion for withholding of removal; 3) remand was required to allow application of new standards for determining whether an asylum application was frivolous, and for reconsideration of a motion to reopen.

[11/20] Abebe v. Mukasey
Petition for review of denial of relief under section 212(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act via a discretionary waiver of deportation is denied in part and dismissed in part by the court sitting en banc where: 1) there was a rational basis for section 212(c) being limited to discretionary relief from inadmissibility, but not from deportation; and 2) there was therefore no equal-protection violation in the denial of such relief.

[11/19] Sow v. Mukasey
Petition for review of denial of applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture is denied where: 1) substantial evidence supported the adverse credibility findings of the IJ; and 2) petitioner did not produce evidence that he was likely to face persecution upon his return to Mauritania.

[11/19] Budiono v. Mukasey
Petition for review of denial of application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture is denied where: 1) Board of Immigration Appeals can adopt part of the Immigration Judge's decision and add its own analysis; 2) substantial evidence supported the determination that the harms Christian, ethnic Chinese-petitioner suffered in Indonesia did not constitute persecution; and 3) substantial evidence supported the IJ's and BIA's determination that petitioner failed to establish a well-founded fear of future persecution in light of the fact that her family continues to live in relative safety in Indonesia.

[11/19] Diallo v. US Dept. of Justice
Petition for review of decision denying native citizen of Guinea asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), is granted where: 1) given the presence of errors in the Board of Immigration Appeals' decision as to issues that were properly exhausted and the plausibility of other newly claimed errors, remand to the BIA would not have been futile; and 2) there were sufficient exhausted flaws in the reasoning of the Immigration Judge's adverse credibility determination to warrant a remand, and the court could not confidently predict the same outcome if there were further agency reconsideration.

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