Pankajkumar S. Patel v. U.S. Attorney General

917 F.3d 1319
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMarch 6, 2019
Docket17-10636
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 917 F.3d 1319 (Pankajkumar S. Patel v. U.S. Attorney General) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pankajkumar S. Patel v. U.S. Attorney General, 917 F.3d 1319 (11th Cir. 2019).

Opinions

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:

*1322This case presents interesting, and rather complicated, questions of statutory interpretation.

Pankajkumar Patel, an immigrant facing removal, asks us to review a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals. The Board held that Patel is inadmissible, and thus cannot get relief from removal, because he falsely represented himself as a citizen when applying for a Georgia driver's license. The relevant statute provides that an alien is inadmissible if he falsely represents himself as a U.S. citizen "for any purpose or benefit" under the law. 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(C)(ii)(I). Under the Board's previous interpretation of the statute, an alien is inadmissible only if he makes the false representation with the intent to obtain the purpose or benefit, and if the false representation is material to the purpose or benefit sought. Matter of Richmond , 26 I. & N. Dec. 779, 786-87 (BIA 2016). Patel argues that he simply checked the wrong box, and that citizenship did not affect the application. His case presents two questions.

First, whether we have jurisdiction to review Patel's claim that, as a factual matter, he checked the wrong box and thus lacked the requisite subjective intent to trigger the statute. Second, whether we must defer to the Board's interpretation in Richmond , finding a materiality element in the statute. The answer to both is, we do not.

I.

Patel came to the United States from India. He entered the country without inspection. Consequently, the Department of Homeland Security issued a notice to appear to Patel charging him as removable for being present in the United States without inspection. See 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i) ("An alien present in the United States without being admitted or paroled ... is inadmissible.").

Patel conceded removability, but he sought discretionary relief from removal by applying for adjustment of status under 8 U.S.C. § 1255(i). Section 1255 permits an alien who entered without inspection to obtain relief from removal if, among other things, the alien is the beneficiary of a labor certification. See § 1255(i)(1)(B)(ii). Patel was a valid beneficiary, because he had an approved I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker.1

The Attorney General may adjust an alien's status to lawful permanent resident if the alien meets certain requirements. See § 1255(i) ; see also 8 C.F.R. § 1245.10(b) (listing the eligibility requirements for an alien who entered without inspection and is seeking adjustment of status based on a labor certification). The parties agree that Patel meets all the statutory criteria for adjustment of status except one: the applicant must show "clearly and beyond doubt" that he is not inadmissible. See 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(c)(2) (in a removal proceeding, an alien applying for admission "has the burden of establishing ... that the alien is clearly and beyond doubt entitled to be admitted and is not inadmissible").

Patel's admissibility is in doubt because he falsely represented that he was a U.S. citizen when he applied for a Georgia driver's *1323license in 2008. When applying for the license, Patel checked the box indicating that he is a U.S. citizen. This incident arguably renders Patel inadmissible pursuant to § 1182(a)(6)(c)(ii)(I), which says:

Any alien who falsely represents, or has falsely represented, himself or herself to be a citizen of the United States for any purpose or benefit under this chapter (including section 1324a of this title) or any other Federal or State law is inadmissible.

The Board of Immigration Appeals interpreted this section to require three elements: (1) a false representation of citizenship; (2) that is material to a purpose or benefit under the law; (3) with the subjective intent of obtaining the purpose or benefit. Richmond , 26 I. & N. Dec. at 786-87.

There was no dispute that Patel made a false representation of citizenship. Nor was there any dispute that a driver's license is a benefit under state law. Patel challenged the applicability of the statute on two grounds: he lacked the requisite subjective intent, and the false representation was not material.

At the removal hearing, Patel argued that he did not have the requisite subjective intent: he simply made a mistake. To prove that it was a mistake, Patel claimed that he provided his alien registration number and his employment authorization card to the DMV with his driver's license application, suggesting that it would make no sense to document his non-citizen status if his goal was to pose as a citizen.

Patel also argued that a false representation of citizenship was not material to obtaining a driver's license. He asserted that an alien is eligible to receive a driver's license in Georgia. As proof, Patel observed that he had previously received a license from Georgia.

The Immigration Judge ("IJ") rejected Patel's arguments. The IJ determined that Patel was not credible. He was evasive when testifying and would not explain to the Court exactly what the mistake was. Furthermore, contrary to his testimony, Patel did not write his alien registration number on the application. Where the application asks about citizenship, it directs the applicant to provide his alien registration number if he is not a citizen. Patel marked that he was a citizen and did not write down his alien registration number. The application also does not reflect that Patel provided his employment authorization card: in the section on the form where the Georgia official is to list the documents accepted, the only document mentioned is the old Georgia driver's license. In short, the evidence contradicted Patel's testimony, which the IJ already suspected was not candid, so the IJ did not believe Patel's claim that he made a mistake. The IJ found that Patel willfully and purposefully indicated that he was a U.S. citizen.

The IJ also held that Patel failed to meet his burden of proving that he was otherwise eligible for a driver's license. The fact that Patel had previously obtained a license in Georgia is inconclusive. Patel might have misrepresented his citizenship on his past application too.

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Related

Patel v. Garland
596 U.S. 328 (Supreme Court, 2022)
Pankajkumar Patel v. U.S. Attorney General
971 F.3d 1258 (Eleventh Circuit, 2020)
ZHANG
27 I. & N. Dec. 569 (Board of Immigration Appeals, 2019)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
917 F.3d 1319, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pankajkumar-s-patel-v-us-attorney-general-ca11-2019.