Mirmehdi v. Ashcroft

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

No. 03-56271, No. 03-56272, No. 03-56273, No. 03-56274

2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 20924

Mirmehdi v. Ashcroft is a case concerning the four Mirmehdi brothers from Iran who all applied for asylum in California.  Mohammad-Rez Mirmehdi, Mohsen Mirmehdi, Mostafa Mirmehdi and Mojtaba Mirmehdi all appeared before and immigration judge who denied all their applications for asylum as well as denied their ineligibility for withholding of removal.  Upon this decision all four brother appealed the decision regarding their withholding of removal to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).  Furthermore, only two of the brothers, Mohammad-Rez and Mohsen, also appealed to the BIA for the denial of their asylum application.  On August 20, 2004 the BIA ruled to uphold the asylum application decision of the IJ, but to grant withholding of removal to all of the Mirmehdis.

At this point, all for brothers have gone further to appeal their denial of bond revocation, which was affirmed upon evidence of the brothers’ terrorist activity involvement, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  Upon review the case the court found that because Mohammad-Rez and Mohsen went forth in appealing their applications for asylum, unlike their other two brothers, they appeals for denial of bond revocation were not moot, leaving Mostafa and Mojtaba unable to appeal that particular decision.  The court also found that because agencies have a duty to make decisions that are consistent with their previous findings or to state why when decisions are not consistent, they did not find the BIA decision satisfactory.  The Court of Appeals stated that because the BIA made contradictory decision when deciding on the Mirmehdis’ cases, the cases of  Mohammad-Rez and Mohsen have been remanded for further review by the district since the BIA later found that the brothers had no connection to terrorist activities.