Opinion ID: 795029
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Post-Asylum Procedural History and Termination of Asylum

Text: 6 In November 2000, approximately two months after the IJ granted Hailemichael asylum, DHS moved to reopen removal proceedings against Hailemichael and to terminate the grant of asylum. Based upon an investigation that it began after the IJ granted Hailemichael asylum, DHS claimed it had discovered that Hailemichael's application was fraudulent. According to DHS, contrary to Hailemichael's asylum application and hearing testimony, her husband was not imprisoned in Ethiopia. Hailemichael opposed the motion to reopen. 7 In support of its motion to reopen, DHS attached letters from DHS to the United States embassy in Ethiopia and the embassy's responses. The letters from DHS sought information on most of Hailemichael's claims, including her claim that her father died in 1998, that her children applied for visas to come to the United States and that her husband had been imprisoned. DHS also asked the embassy to investigate the authenticity of a warrant for Hailemichael's arrest that Hailemichael introduced in support of her application. The embassy's investigation indicated that, just as Hailemichael had testified, her children had applied for visas to come to the United States. The embassy was unable to verify or refute most other portions of Hailemichael's testimony. The embassy stated, however, that it had contacted a prison official in Ethiopia and that the prison official claimed that his prison had never held Hailemichael's husband. The embassy also located a witness who allegedly stated that she purchased a home from Hailemichael's husband in 1995 (a year in which, according to Hailemichael's testimony, Hailemichael's husband should have been in jail). According to the embassy, that same witness claimed that Hailemichael's husband is a businessman in Addis Ababa. The witness was unwilling, however, to sign a sworn statement. The embassy also turned up a document from the Ethiopian government indicating that Hailemichael's husband had been cleared of at least one criminal charge in 1993. 8 Based solely upon the information provided by DHS and without a hearing, the IJ granted DHS's motion to reopen removal proceedings and terminated Hailemichael's asylum. Hailemichael subsequently moved the IJ to reconsider, but the IJ refused. Having terminated the prior grant of asylum, the IJ then held hearings on the asylum application in March and August 2001, during which Hailemichael introduced additional testimony and documents. Hailemichael testified that she did not know that her husband had been released from prison when she testified at the initial hearing. She also asserted that it was the Ethiopian government's practice to release and reimprison its enemies and that her husband had likely been reimprisoned. Hailemichael also offered the testimony of two witnesses who testified that they were on the telephone with Hailemichael when she learned her husband had been released. They testified that Hailemichael was genuinely shocked. 9 In February 2002, the IJ reversed her earlier decision and denied Hailemichael's application for asylum. Contrary to her first opinion, the IJ now found Hailemichael to be not credible for many reasons. In the course of her decision to deny asylum, the IJ discounted Hailemichael's proffered evidence in favor of the evidence that DHS gathered in its post-grant investigation. She also reversed a number of holdings and findings from her opinion granting asylum, many of which were logically unrelated to the issue of Hailemichael's husband's imprisonment or her credibility. 10 Hailemichael appealed to the BIA. However, during the pendency of her appeal, Hailemichael's visa number became current. She therefore moved the BIA to remand her case to the IJ so that she could seek adjustment of status. The BIA remanded the case to the IJ in December 2003. Hailemichael sought adjustment of status because her sister (a United States citizen) and mother (a legal permanent resident) reside in the United States, claiming that Hailemichael's deportation would be an extreme hardship on her elderly mother, as Hailemichael's mother was in ill health and relied upon Hailemichael for medical care. In June 2004, the IJ took testimony concerning Hailemichael's application for adjustment of status and waiver of any fraud finding to allow that adjustment. Less than a month later, the IJ denied Hailemichael's application for adjustment of status and waiver. On that same date, the IJ issued a supplemental order wherein she made an explicit finding (for the first time) that Hailemichael committed fraud in connection with her application for asylum. Hailemichael moved the IJ to reconsider the denial of her application for adjustment. However, in August 2004, the IJ issued another opinion in which she refused to reconsider the application. 11 Hailemichael subsequently appealed the IJ's denials of asylum, adjustment of status and waiver. In June 2005, the BIA dismissed Hailemichael's appeal and adopted and affirmed the IJ's February 2002 and June 2004 orders denying Hailemichael all relief, as well as the August 2004 order refusing to reconsider the application for adjustment. Hailemichael timely petitioned for review.