Opinion ID: 173774
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Second Asylum Hearing

Text: On remand, the government filed a motion with the IJ to reopen under 8 C.F.R. § 1003.23, seeking to introduce new evidence that Fernandes had knowingly filed a fraudulent asylum application. In its motion, the government proffered the testimony of Basi, who had prepared Fernandes's application. Basi and his partner Kashmir Singh Malhi (Malhi) ran a business preparing fraudulent asylum applications, and Basi pled guilty to conspiracy to make false statements under oath with respect to asylum applications. [3] The IJ granted the government's motion to reopen, over Fernandes's objection. At the second asylum hearing, Basi testified that he and Mahli had operated a business creating and filing false asylum applications for Indian aliens. Basi pled guilty to charges stemming from this conduct. Although testifying against his former clients was not a formal condition of Basi's plea agreement, Basi agreed to cooperate with the government by testifying against former clients and, in exchange, received a reduced sentence of eleven months (time served). To orchestrate their fraudulent scheme, Basi and Malhi had their clients sign blank asylum applications. Basi and Malhi then completed the applications by inserting entirely fabricated stories of persecution, except for some accurate basic information. [4] Basi testified that none of his clients had ever presented him with a genuine claim and that every application he had ever filed was false. Basi also testified that he recognized Fernandes as a former client for whom he had filed a fraudulent asylum application. He stated that Fernandes had responded to one of Basi's advertisements and that they had met in New York to discuss the application. Because Fernandes lived in New Jersey, Basi used his friend's California address on Fernandes's application. As was his practice, Basi gave Fernandes a blank asylum form and asked him to sign it and provide the basic biographical information. Basi then returned to California and created a fictional story about Fernandes's arrest at a Sikh rally. As the hearing date neared, Fernandes flew to California, where Basi coached him for two to three days to help him learn the false narrative and prepared him to testify concerning it. During the hearing, Basi was presented with a folder that the INS had confiscated from his office. He identified it as his work folder for Fernandes's application. Basi testified that his recollection of Fernandes's case was particularly good because Fernandes was one of his few Christian clientsthe majority of his clients being Sikh. Next, Fernandes took the stand and admitted that he had given a false California address and that Basi had prepared his asylum application. He admitted that he had contacted Basi for help with his asylum application and that the pair had met in New York. He said that he told Basi about his persecution in India and that Basi took notes on the story. Fernandes said that he signed a blank asylum application with the understanding that Basi would complete the application for him. In addition to acknowledging the false address, Fernandes admitted in direct testimony that a statement in the application about Christians being burned alive in India was a lie added by Basi. On cross-examination, Fernandes also admitted that he had lied under oath about the following facts: (1) that a minivan dropped him off in Elk Grove, California; (2) that he lived in Elk Grove; (3) that he rode a bicycle to church in Elk Grove; (4) that he worked at a Mobil station in New Jersey; and (5) when he had last contacted his wife. He also admitted that he never provided a written personal statement to Basi, as he had earlier claimed.