Khan v. Gonzales
Khan v. Gonzales
Opinion of the Court
SUMMARY ORDER
Dhanwattie Khan, through counsel, petitions for review of an order by Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) Member Juan P. Osuna denying her motion to reopen based on the ineffective assistance of her prior counsel. In re Dhanwattie Khan, No. A 73-595-659 (BIA Aug. 30, 2004). We assume that the parties are familiar with the underlying facts and procedural history of the case.
This Court reviews the BIA’s denial of a motion to reopen for abuse of discretion. See Kaur v. BIA 413 F.3d 232, 233 (2d Cir. 2005) (per curiam); Khouzam v. Ashcroft, 361 F.3d 161, 165 (2d Cir. 2004). The BIA abuses its discretion when it “provides no rational explanation, inexplicably departs from established policies, is devoid of any reasoning, or contains only summary or conclusory statements; that is to say, where the Board has acted in an arbitrary or capricious manner.” Ke Zhen Zhao v. U.S. Dep’t of Justice, 265 F.3d 83, 93 (2d Cir. 2001) (internal citations omitted).
In its order denying Khan’s motion, the BIA acknowledged that, although motions to reopen generally must be filed within 90 days of the final BIA order, this deadline can be tolled where an applicant was prejudiced by ineffective counsel. The BIA found, however, that Khan could not bene
On appeal Khan argues that because she clearly met the conditions for establishing ineffective assistance set forth in Matter of Lozada, 19 I. & N. Dec. 637, 1988 WL 235454 (BIA 1988), the BIA was wrong to impose any additional requirement on her. Yet it may well be that the BIA did not set forth any diligence requirement in Matter of Lozada because the gap in time was only six months, not, as here, nearly three years, or because the BIA found Lozada’s motion deficient for other reasons.
Surprisingly, Khan offers no account here, and none below, of how it is that she only discovered her counsel’s incompetence three years after she lost her case.
We have considered Khan’s remaining arguments on this appeal and find them to be without merit. For the foregoing reasons, we DENY Khan’s petition for review and motion for a stay of removal.
. Khan has also submitted a supplemental appendix of unpublished (and redacted) BIA decisions that, she argues, establish a BIA practice of granting motions to reopen wherever the movant satisfies the Matter of Lozada requirements. However, in only one of these — the November 23, 2004, decision — had any significant amount of time passed, by the time of the BIA’s decision on the motion, since the BIA’s initial decision. The November 23, 2004, order does not specify when the motion was filed, so it gives no indication of whether that motion was delayed; the order certainly does not refer to any untimeliness. Thus, none of the orders compiled in the supplemental appendix establish any practice, consistent or otherwise, of accepting motions to reopen at any point so long as they comply with Matter of Lozada.
. Khan argues that, at the very least, the BIA should have remanded the issue of due diligence for factfinding. But, as set forth above, it is the movant's burden to show that she acted diligently and Khan failed even to allege as much.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Dhanwattie KHAN v. Alberto R. GONZALES
- Status
- Published