The Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) held the petitioner, Mr. Ragbir, removable from the United States by applying a narrow evidentiary standard that the Supreme Court later rejected (in Nijhawan v. Holder, 129 S. Ct. 2294 (2009)). When the Second Circuit reviewed the decision, it declined to remand the case so that BIA could consider, in the first instance, whether Ragbir was removable in light of evidence made relevant by Nijhawan. Instead, the Second Circuit concluded that Ragbir could not win under the new standard, and so did not remand the case back to the BIA.

Amici consist of community groups, civil rights organizations, and immigrant justice organizations. They contend that the Second Circuit has both violated the ordinary remand rule and, in doing so, interfered with the Ragbir’s fundamental right to present relevant evidence. Amici concur with petitioner Ragbir that the Second Circuit erred by refusing to remand this case to the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) to apply, in the first instance, the new and broader evidentiary standards this Court established in Nijhawan v. Holder, 129 S. Ct. 2294 (2009).