FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

NIKOLAY ALEXANDROVICH DZYUBA, 

Petitioner, No. 06-74372

v. Agency No. 

M A71-084-224 ICHAEL B. MUKASEY, Attorney

General, OPINION

Respondent. 

On Petition for Review of an Order of the

Board of Immigration Appeals

Argued and Submitted

July 8, 2008—Seattle, Washington

Filed August 25, 2008

Before: Kim McLane Wardlaw, Richard R. Clifton, and

N. Randy Smith, Circuit Judges.

Per Curiam Opinion

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COUNSEL

Vicky Dobrin and Hilary A. Han, Dobrin & Han, PC, Seattle,

Washington, for the petitioner. 

Ada E. Bosque and Peter D. Keisler, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.; Alison Marie Igoe and

Jeffrey L. Menkin, Office of Immigration Litigation, Washington, D.C., for the respondent. 

11650 DZYUBA v. MUKASEY
OPINION

PER CURIAM: 

Nikolay Alexandrovich Dzyuba (“Dzyuba”), a Georgian

native and citizen of the former Union of Soviet Socialist

Republics, petitions for review of the order of the Board of

Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) removing him to the Ukraine.

The BIA upheld Dzyuba’s removal to the Ukraine pursuant to

8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(2)(E)(i), which permits the Attorney General to remove an alien to “[t]he country from which the alien

was admitted to the United States.” 

In November of 1965, Dzyuba was born in Georgia, then

a constituent republic of the U.S.S.R. Seven years later, he

and his family left Georgia and traveled to the Ukraine,

another area within the U.S.S.R. After suffering what he considers persecution due to his Pentecostal religion, Dzyuba left

the Ukraine—when it was still part of the Soviet Union—in

July 1991 to emigrate to the United States. 

Two years after entry as a refugee, the United States

granted Dzyuba legal permanent residence. However, when

Dzyuba applied for naturalization in 2002, a Department of

Homeland Security officer arrested him on the basis that he

was removable from the United States for two convictions for

crimes involving moral turpitude, id. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(ii); a

conviction for an aggravated felony, id. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii);

and a conviction for a crime involving domestic violence, id.

§ 1227(a)(2)(E)(i). Conceding removability, Dzyuba applied

for withholding of removal and protection under the United

Nations Convention Against Torture. After review, the BIA

determined that Dzyuba should be removed to the Ukraine

pursuant to § 1231(b)(2)(E)(i). 

[1] The BIA based its holding on a finding that Dzyuba

entered the United States with a Ukranian passport. Substantial evidence does not support the BIA’s finding. Rather, the

DZYUBA v. MUKASEY 11651
passport in the record reflects that Dyzuba entered the United

States with a passport issued by the Soviet Union and stamped

with the date of his entry to the United States, July 5, 1991.

Because the BIA relied on this erroneous finding when applying § 1231(b)(2)(E)(i), it failed to address the novel legal

question Dzyuba’s petition actually presents: whether the

Ukraine, as of the date of Dzyuba’s entry, qualifies as a

“country,” as the term is used in the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”), from which he was admitted.1

 The term

“country” has multiple ordinary definitions, alternatively

denoting an independent political entity or merely a geographic region without reference to political sovereignty. See

WEBSTER’S THIRD NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY 521 (1986).

The question the BIA must address in the first instance is

whether “country,” as used in the INA, requires an independent political entity or encompasses a non-sovereign region

within another sovereign. 

[2] Courts have defined “country” in the context of predecessor statutes to the INA, see United States ex rel. Mensevich v. Tod, 264 U.S. 134, 136 (1924) (interpreting the

Immigration Act of 1917); parallel statutory schemes, see

Bajalieh v. Beechie, 309 F.2d 386, 389 (9th Cir. 1962) (interpreting the Refugee Relief Act of 1953); and in determining

whether American political recognition was required to qualify under the current statutory scheme, see Ademi v. INS, 31

F.3d 517, 521 n.7 (7th Cir. 1994). These cases are not dispositive of the precise question presented here because we construe the meaning of a given word by reference to the context

of a particular statutory regime. See United States v. TRW

Rifle 7.62X51mm Caliber, One Model 14 Serial 593006, 447

F.3d 686, 690 (9th Cir. 2006) (“[W]e do not ascertain ordinary meaning in the abstract. Rather, we must decide which

of these definitions, if any, is consistent with the context of

the statute.”). Through § 1231(b)(2)(E), Congress developed

1The Ukraine did not become an independent nation until August 24,

1991, seven weeks after Dzyuba entered the United States. 

11652 DZYUBA v. MUKASEY
an intricate statutory scheme, replete with seven discrete

means to determine the appropriate place to which an alien is

removable. We are reluctant to assume that what “country”

meant in the context of other statutes is readily applicable to

the current statutory scheme. Moreover, Congress used the

term “country” numerous times within the INA itself, and we

must construe the term to have the same meaning each time

it is used in the Act. See Pasquantino v. United States, 544

U.S. 349, 358-59 (2005) (“To give these same words a different meaning for each category would be to invent a statute

rather than interpret one.”) (citation omitted). 

[3] Because of the deference we owe the BIA in its role in

determining in the first instance whether pre-independent

Ukraine qualifies as a “country,” see Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v.

Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 842-45 (1984),

we remand Dzyuba’s petition to the BIA to determine what

Congress meant when it used the term “country” in the

removal context. See Gonzales v. Thomas, 547 U.S. 183

(2006) (holding that remand was appropriate remedy where

BIA had not yet determined whether a “family” could constitute a “social group” within the meaning of 8 U.S.C.

§ 1101(a)(42)(A)). 

VACATED AND REMANDED.

DZYUBA v. MUKASEY 11653