Online Editor of the LexisNexis Immigration Law Community (ILC)
Dan Kowalski reports for LexisNexis Immigration Community:
CA9 on Due Process: Grigoryan v. Barr
“Our government granted asylum to Karen Grigoryan (“Petitioner”), his wife, and two of their children (collectively, the “Grigoryans”) in 2001. Beginning in 2005, the Grigoryans were subjected to a protracted immigration ordeal triggered by the government’s allegations of fraud in Petitioner’s asylum application. The Grigoryans’ bureaucratic nightmare culminated when, after they had resided in the United States for nearly fourteen years, an immigration judge (“IJ”) terminated their asylum status, denied their renewed requests for deportation relief, and ordered them removed to Armenia. The IJ terminated the Grigoryans’ asylum status by relying almost exclusively on a single-page “report” introduced by the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) that purportedly revealed that Petitioner’s original asylum application contained fraudulent documents. Although the Grigoryans were not allowed to examine any of the documents or the individuals referred to in the report, they ultimately proved that half of the fraud allegations in the report were unfounded. The IJ also relied on adverse credibility findings entered against Petitioner at an earlier hearing that never should have taken place. The question before us is whether, in light of this series of missteps, the agency erred in terminating the Grigoryans’ asylum status. We have jurisdiction over the Grigoryans’ petition for review pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252. We hold that the government violated the Grigoryans’ due process rights by failing to provide them a full and fair opportunity to rebut the government’s fraud allegations at the termination hearing. We therefore grant the petition, vacate the decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) and the IJ’s order of deportation, and remand to the BIA for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
[Hats off to Catalina Gracia and Areg Kazaryan!]
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Circuit Courts continue to “out” constant failures of elementary due process by a BIA that has abandoned that concept to serve as an “rubber stamp” for their “partners” at DHS Enforcement. Wrongfully sending asylum seekers back to persecution based on bogus grounds and defective procedures can be a death sentence.
But, these systemic violations of due process and the essential “fraud” being perpetrated on the Article III Courts by imposters posing as “subject matter experts” and an enforcement body masquerading as a “court” remains unaddressed. It’s no secret that the corrupt Billy Barr is unqualified to serve as the chief legal official of the U.S. Nor is it “rocket science” to recognize that allowing him to run a “court system” violates Constitutional due process. So, what’s the justification for life-tenured Article III judges who fail to halt these grotesque, life-threatening abuses and require the long, long overdue constitutionally-required reforms to create an independent judiciary insulated from political control?
Due Process Forever! Complicit Courts Never!
PWS
06-08-20
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