News From the Courts

Kerciku v. INS, Seventh Circuit

Adrian Kerciku, a citizen of Albania , applied for asylum in the US , claiming that he had been persecuted by the government because of his pro-democracy activities. At the hearing, the immigration judge questioned him about the documents he submitted in support of his application and abruptly ended the hearing, finding neither Kerciku nor his documents credible. Kerciku appealed, arguing that he was denied due process.

Kerciku claimed to come from a well-known Albanian family that had been persecuted by the government since the end of World War Two. He said that he was forbidden from seeking higher education and was on a number of occasions arrested for participating in anti-government demonstrations. After the communists lost control of the Albanian government, Kerciku became an employee of the Democratic Party chairperson. He claimed to have received a number of death threats, which continued even after he moved to the Netherlands to work at the Albanian embassy there. After the communists regained control of the government in 1997, he left for the US . At his asylum hearing, he presented a number of documents in support of his claim. The immigration judge then terminated the hearing, saying that the neither the documents nor the claim was credible, before Kerciku was allowed to testify on his own behalf.

The court found that this did not satisfy due process, and that Kerciku was prejudiced by not being allowed to present testimony.

The opinion is available online at http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/7th/021948.pdf.

*********

In re Koloamatangi, Board of Immigration Appeals

Siaosi Koloamatangi, a citizen of Tonga , was placed in deportation proceedings and applied for cancellation of removal. He had become a lawful permanent resident in 1985, based on a marriage to a US citizen. This marriage, however, was not valid because Koloamatangi was already married at the time. While in deportation proceedings, he argued that as a permanent resident, he was eligible for cancellation of removal. An immigration judge, however, found that because he obtained permanent residence through fraud, he was never legally a permanent resident. He appealed to the Board, which affirmed the ruling of the judge.

The Board rejected Koloamatangi’s argument that regardless of how one obtains permanent residence, one is a permanent resident until the INS issues a final deportation order.

The opinion is available online at http://www.usdoj.gov/eoir/efoia/bia/Decisions/Revdec/pdfDEC/3486.pdf.