Alien was entitled to new hearing on petition seeking his removal based on allegation that he entered into sham marriage for immigration purposes, where alien was prejudiced by his inability to cross-examine his American-citizen former wife, who provided written statement claiming that alien had not lived with her for majority of their brief marriage. While govt. argued that submission of former wife’s written statement was permissible because it had made reasonable attempt to procure her attendance at hearing, Ct. found that govt. failed to make reasonable efforts to obtain her presence at removal hearing, where: (1) there was no evidence that subpoena was served on former wife that sought her presence on original hearing date that was subsequently moved to new date; and (2) govt. made no effort to request new subpoena to require her presence on new date of removal hearing.
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Immigration