Court Opinion

ID: 9490466
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:44:12.98057+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:06.880521
License: Public Domain

LOKEN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. After concluding, correctly in my view, that the administrative record contains substantial evidence supporting the agency’s final action, the court remands for consideration of two unsworn letters that were never presented to the agency and indeed were not written by the author, an Ethiopian political activist, until after the Board of Immigration Appeals decision under review. In my view, this use of 28 U.S.C. § 2347(c) goes far beyond our decision in Makonnen v. INS, 44 F.3d 1378 (8th Cir.1995), and impermissibly encroaches upon the agency’s discretion to decide in the first instance whether a final action should be reopened. See INS v. Jong Ha Wang, 450 U.S. 139, 143 n. 5, 101 S.Ct. 1027, 1030 n.5, 67 L.Ed.2d 123 (1981); Osaghae v. U.S. I.N.S., 942 F.2d 1160, 1162 (7th Cir.1991); Ramirez-Gonzalez v. INS, 695 F.2d 1208, 1213-14 (9th Cir.1983). Accordingly, I would deny the motion for leave to adduce additional evidence and affirm.