Opinion ID: 179022
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Transfer to the district court

Text: Ordinarily, upon deciding that an alien was denied a fair hearing in his removal proceeding, we would remand to the BIA so that he could get a fair hearing. In this case, though, Dent's claim is and has been that he is a naturalized citizen of the United States. The statute governing judicial review of orders of removal provides that if the petitioner claims to be a national of the United States, then the court of appeals should decide whether he is, in the absence of any genuine issue of material fact, or should transfer the case to the district court if there is a genuine issue of material fact. [32] Dent claims that he is a United States citizen. That means we cannot remand Dent's case to the BIA. This case presents a genuine issue of material fact. The government claims that the handwritten notations and the illegible photocopy of a possibly illegible rubber stamp prove that Dent is not a citizen. We cannot confidently decide what the notations and rubber stamp say. Nor can we decide who put them there. Nor can we decide, in the absence of evidence, whether, even if they say what the government claims they say, and were put there by duly authorized officials of the appropriate agencies, they have conclusive effect. We do not know whether such notations amount to denials of naturalization petitions. For all we know, the government lacks authority to sit on an application to naturalize a fourteen year old until after he is eighteen and has aged out, or to sit on applications for naturalization for 23 or 27 years. Accordingly, we transfer the proceedings to the United States District Court for the District of Arizona for a new hearing on [his] nationality claim and a decision on that claim as if an action had been brought for declaratory relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2201. [33] If the district court determines that Dent is not a citizen of the United States, then the case should be remanded to the BIA for a new hearing after production of the A-file in full, unless its production has already been ordered by the district court. The BIA decision is VACATED and the proceedings TRANSFERRED to the district court.