Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca7-08-01705/USCOURTS-ca7-08-01705-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Michael B. Mukasey
Respondent
Iryna Pavlyk
Petitioner
Natalia Pavlyk
Petitioner
Volodymyr Pavlyk
Petitioner

Document Text:

United States Court of Appeals

For the Seventh Circuit

Chicago, Illinois 60604

 Submitted April 21, 2008∗

Decided April 29, 2008

Before

FRANK H. EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge

RICHARD D. CUDAHY, Circuit Judge

DANIEL A. MANION, Circuit Judge

Nos. 07-2950 & 07-3583

VOLODYMYR PAVLYK, also known as NIKOLAI

NARYJKIN, NATALIA PAVLYK and IRYNA PAVLYK, also

known as LUBA SAVCHUK, 

Petitioners,

v.

MICHAEL B. MUKASEY, Attorney General of the

United States,

Respondent.

Petitions for Review of an

Order of the Board of 

Immigration Appeals.

Nos. A95-924-674

 A95-415-976

 A95-924-704

Order

We denied Volodymyr Pavlyk’s petition for review of an order that he (and his

family) must be removed from the United States to Ukraine. 469 F.3d 1082 (7th Cir. 

 

∗ These successive appeals have been submitted to the original panel under Operating Procedure 6(b).

After examining the briefs and the record, we have concluded that oral argument is unnecessary. See Fed.

R. App. P. 34(a); Cir.R. 34(f).

NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION

To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1

To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 

32.1Not to be cited per Circuit Rule 53

Case: 08-1705 Document: 13 Filed: 04/29/2008 Pages: 2
Nos. 07-2950 & 07-3583 Page 2

2006). The Pavlyks then asked the Board of Immigration Appeals to reopen and, when

the Board denied that request, asked it to reconsider. That motion, too, was denied, and

the Pavlyks have filed two petitions for review, one from each of the orders.

The principal argument now advanced is that 8 U.S.C. §1158(a)(2)(B), which gives

aliens only one year after entering the United States to seek asylum, is either

inapplicable to the Pavlyks or unconstitutional. Such an argument does not support

reopening, however; only developments that post-date a removal order may be urged

in support of reopening. The immigration judge invoked §1158(a)(2)(B) against the

Pavlyks in their removal hearing. The Pavlyks conceded untimeliness but argued that

the immigration judge had not adequately considered the possibility of exceptions to

the statute; we dismissed that aspect of the claim for lack of jurisdiction, see also Jiménez

Viracacha v. Mukasey, 518 F.3d 511 (7th Cir. 2008), leaving only the Pavlyks’ request for

withholding of removal. The particular arguments that the Pavlyks now present were

not before us in 2006, but a motion to reopen is not a means to advance purely legal

arguments that were not made earlier. This is so whether or not the Pavlyks’ failure to

contest §1158(a)(2)(B) on their initial petition to this court meets the technical

requirements of issue preclusion.

Much the same problem dogs the Pavlyks’ argument that reopening is

warranted by the risk of persecution should they be returned to Ukraine. They lack any

evidence that conditions in Ukraine are materially different today than they were at the

time of their hearing. Instead they seek to adduce new evidence that could have been

presented earlier. For example, they contend that a letter the IJ and BIA considered in

2004 was a hoax. Whether the Ferents letter, dated May 18, 1998, was bona fide (and

truthful, if genuine) was a subject that could have been addressed long ago. A motion

to reopen is not a means to get a second bite at the apple and relitigate the removal

proceeding with the benefit of hindsight. See 8 C.F.R. §§1003.2(c)(3)(ii), 1003.23(b)(4)(i). 

See also Krougliak v. INS, 289 F.3d 457, 460 (7th Cir. 2002). All of the evidence on which

the Pavlyks now rely concern events that predate the hearing. The Board was entitled

to confine its attention to the question whether conditions have changed for the worse

in Ukraine since 2004.

The petitions for review are denied.

Case: 08-1705 Document: 13 Filed: 04/29/2008 Pages: 2