Court Opinion

ID: 9483486
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:21:45.457122+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:39.042513
License: Public Domain

BREYER, Chief Judge,
(dissenting).
It seems to me that we should remand this case. The papers before us reveal that, if Thomas had received his hearing, he might have convinced the immigration judge to recommend that he not be deported. On the one hand, the crime for which he served four months in prison, assault with a baseball bat, was serious. On the other hand, it did not involve drugs, he has had no other recorded misbehavior for seven years; he has lived in this country for twelve years; he helps to support his mother and two siblings who live here; and he has supporting affidavits from his employer and others who know him, which suggest rehabilitation. Moreover, his tardi*791ness at his hearing did not significantly interfere with the immigration judge’s ability to conduct it. He was approximately thirty minutes late; the immigration judge had scheduled two hours for the hearing. Finally, deportation, as is obvious, is a very severe, very stringent consequence.
Given the severity of the consequence, the minimal procedural interference, and the serious claim for relief from deportation, in my view, the Board of Immigration Appeals acted arbitrarily in refusing to order a new hearing.
I dissent.