Opinion ID: 785417
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Second Petition

Text: 8 At the time when the administrative proceedings related to the first petition were taking place, Congress instructed the Attorney General to implement Article 3 of the Convention Against Torture, which prohibits the deportation of any person to a state where there are substantial grounds to believe the person would be subjected to torture. See Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, Pub.L. 105-277, Div. G, Title XXII, § 2242, 112 Stat. 2681-822, 8 U.S.C. § 1231 note (2000). Unlike asylum and withholding of removal under the INA, evidence of a past crime is not a bar to deferral of removal under the CAT. Once the CAT's implementing regulations were adopted, Khouzam applied for this new form of relief. On January 14, 2000, after three days of hearings, an immigration judge found it more likely than not that Khouzam would be tortured in Egypt. The administrative judge therefore granted Khouzam deferral of removal. The INS appealed this decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals. The Board dismissed the INS' appeal on July 24, 2000. 9 On April 5, 2002 the INS moved the BIA to reconsider its July 24, 2000 decision granting Khouzam deferral of removal under the CAT. Without making any new findings of fact — and relying instead on a purported change in the law — on May 7, 2002 the BIA reconsidered and vacated its earlier decision and ordered that Khouzam be removed from the United States. It is this decision that is the subject of Khouzam's second petition.