Ct. of Appeals remanded to Bd. alien’s application to remove conditions on his permanent resident status based on his marriage to U.S. citizen, where: (1) IJ ultimately found that Dept. of Homeland Security properly terminated alien’s permanent resident status on ground that alien’s application constituted marriage fraud; (2) IJ rejected alien’s application for “good faith” waiver of removal based on fact that alien had failed to disclose in prior testimony that he had remarried original wife at time he was still married to U.S. citizen, and that he had subsequently fathered child in U.S. by original wife; and (3) Bd. found that alien was statutorily ineligible for fraud waiver under 8 USC section 1227(a)(1)(H). Bd. erred when it found that absence of specific fraud charge precluded availability of fraud waiver and should have considered whether charge sustained against alien, i.e., termination of conditional resident status on basis of his marriage to U.S. citizen, was related to fraud. Also, if sustained charge is related to fraud, Bd. needs to consider whether severe health issues of alien’s U.S. citizen daughter, for whom he is only surviving parent, warrants exercise of favorable discretion.
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Immigration