Wrongful summary dismissal of appeal
Vargas-Garcia v. INS, 287 F.3d 882 (9th Cir. 2002)

Pending before the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, this case appeals the wrongful dismissal of Mr. Vargas-Garcia's appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals. The Board of Immigration Appeals claims that Mr. Vargas-Garcia's appeal notice lacked specificity. However, Mr. Vargas-Garcia, representing himself at the time, made sufficient reference to the facts and law in dispute. This case challenges the Board of Immigration Appeal's vague rule that forces a person to guess at how much information must be placed on an appeal form to get the Board of Immigration Appeals to review a case.

This case has been co-counseled with the irreplaceable help of Mr. Peter Afrasiabi, Esq. of the Chapman University School of Law, Orange, California and his students, Ms. Melanie J. Boyer and Ms. Rosa E. Sahagun.

UPDATE: The appeal was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and The Board of Immigration Appeals was instructed to reconsider Mr. Vargas-Garcia's claim (4/25/02)! Click Here to read the decision. This decision was Cited by the Attorney General when promulgating new procedural rules for The Board of Immigration Appeals.

For more information: ILW.com article about the case