Thanks for visiting! Welcome to a new way to research case law. You are viewing a free summary from Descrybe.ai. For citation and good law / bad law checking, legal issue analysis, and other advanced tools, explore our Legal Research Toolkit — not free, but close.
Abraha v. Ashcroft
Citation: 57 F. App'x 94Docket: No. 02-1730
Court: Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; February 3, 2003; Federal Appellate Court
The Court, led by Circuit Judge Nygaard, affirms the Board of Immigration Appeals' (BIA) denial of Tesfaldet Abraha's motion for reconsideration of his asylum application. Abraha, an Ethiopian citizen, had his initial asylum application denied by an Immigration Law Judge, a decision upheld by the BIA in December 2001. He subsequently filed a motion for reconsideration within the allowed thirty days, which the BIA denied. The Court reviews the BIA's denial for abuse of discretion, requiring Abraha to specify errors of fact or law in the BIA's decision, supported by relevant authority. Abraha's motion attempted to distinguish his case from a cited precedent, *Faddoul v. INS*, but failed to identify any legal or factual errors made by the BIA in its December decision. The BIA noted that the facts presented by Abraha were already considered in their prior ruling. In his appeal, Abraha improperly shifts focus to challenge the BIA's original December decision, which is not within the scope of this review because he only sought to contest the denial of his motion for reconsideration. The Court clarifies that challenges to the original decision and the motion for reconsideration are separate, and reviewing the original decision would contradict established legal principles outlined in *Stone v. INS*. Ultimately, the Court concludes that the BIA did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion for reconsideration and affirms the BIA's decision, denying the petition for review.