Court Opinion

ID: 9559421
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:28:56.872648+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:10:57.502222
License: Public Domain

SILER, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the judgment of the majority opinion, but I write separately, because I do not feel that we need to discuss certain aspects of the case. In particular, I concur with Parts L, II., and III.C. Under III.C., the majority opinion agrees with the BIA that the IJ correctly found that Urbina-Mejia was statutorily ineligible for withholding of removal because he admitted that he committed serious nonpolitical crimes over a period of three years. As the majority holds, withholding of removal is not available if the Attorney General finds that the alien committed a “serious nonpolitical crime” before arriving in the United States. 8 U.S.C. § 1231 (b)(3)(B)(iii). Thus, if we affirm on that issue, it does not matter if the alien was a member of a particular social group and had been subject to persecution on that ground. Therefore, I do not adopt the majority’s conclusions in Part III.A., because it is not necessary in this ease. I would leave to another day the question of whether a similar person belonged in this particular social group.
Similarly, I do not adopt Part III.B., concerning whether there was sufficient corroborating evidence to the testimony of Urbina-Mejia before the IJ. The BIA did not adopt or reach the IJ’s determination that Mejia failed to corroborate his testimony. Although this issue of insufficient corroboration was raised by Urbina-Mejia in his brief, when the BIA reviews the IJ’s decision and issues its own separate opinion, as found here, we review the BIA opinion as the final agency determination. See Morgan v. Keisler, 507 F.3d 1053, 1057 (6th Cir.2007). Because the BIA did not discuss the lack of corroboration, I do not feel that the issue is before us.