Last week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ("Ninth
Circuit"), the federal court with jurisdiction over petitions for
review of decisions by the Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA")
regarding removal proceedings that take place within states such as California,
Nevada, Arizona, and Washington, restated what has already long been known:
it does not have jurisdiction to review orders of removal for individuals
who have been found by the BIA to be deportable from the United States
for having been convicted of what is known as an
Aggravated Felony. The foreign national in
Murillo-Prado v. Holder was told on November 20, 2013 in no uncertain terms by the Ninth Circuit
that the Ninth Circuit simply
did not have the authority from the United States Congress to review his case if indeed he was properly
found to be deportable for having been convicted of an Aggravated Felony
but nevertheless maintained the authority to determine whether such finding was made correctly by the BIA. Unfortunately
for the foreign national, the Ninth Circuit found that the documents submitted
by the United States Department of Homeland Security to prove the foreign
national's deportability, including the indictment, plea agreement,
& sentencing order,were enough to meet the burden of proving such deportability by
clear and convincing evidence.
In other news, it appears the Republicans in the United States Congress's
House of Representatives have not given up on Comprehensive Immigration
Reform ("CIR") as Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy potentially disingenuously
made clear yesterday:
