Champion v. Holder, 09-3065

Nigerian citizen's petition for review of a denial of her application for cancellation of removal

Champion v. Holder, 09-3065, concerned a Nigerian citizen's petition for review of a BIA's affirmance of an IJ's denial of her application for cancellation of removal.  In granting the petition, the court held that, although the BIA's findings with respect to petitioner's due process claims is affirmed as she had a full opportunity to present her case and the IJ did not consider improper information, the BIA's decision is vacated and remanded because petitioner's claim that the possibility of the deportation of the children's father would constitute an extremely unusual hardship was not addressed.

As the court wrote: "As we previously held, a claim that the BIA has completely ignored the evidence put forth by a petitioner is an allegation of legal error.  And the failure to exercise discretion or to consider factors acknowledged to be material such an exercise - such as the wholesale failure to consider evidence - would be an error of law."

Related Link:

• Read the Seventh Circuit's Full Decision in Champion v. Holder, 09-3065