U.S. Supreme Court, May 04, 2009
Flores-Figueroa v. US, No. 08-108
Defendant's aggravated identity theft conviction is reversed where 18 U.S.C. section 1028A(a)(1) requires the government to show that a defendant knew that the means of identification at issue belonged to another person.

U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, May 07, 2009
Tawadrous v. Holder , No. 08-1376
Petition for review of denial of plaintiff's motion to reopen removal proceedings is denied where the Board of Immigration Appeals did not abuse its discretion in concluding that the changed-conditions exception did not warrant reopening and thus rejecting plaintiff's untimely motion.

U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, May 08, 2009
Mendez v. Holder , No. 06-0032
Petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals' decision affirming denial of cancellation of removal is granted and remanded where an error of law occurred in the Board's decision, as facts important to the determination of exceptional and extremely unusual hardship were totally overlooked and others were seriously mischaracterized.

U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, May 04, 2009
Ayele v. Holder , No. 08-1411
Petition for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals' denial of plaintiff's application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture is granted and the order vacated and remanded where the immigration judge failed to fully analyze plaintiff's claim that she has an objectively reasonable fear of persecution on account of her familial ties.


U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, May 08, 2009
Castilho de Oliveira v. Holder , No. 07-3307
Petition for review of Board of Immigration Appeals' denial of asylum application and withholding of removal is granted and the decision vacated and remanded where: 1) the IJ's adverse credibility determination was unsupported by evidence in the record, as the IJ's stated reasons for disbelieving plaintiff's claims were either speculative or irrelevant, and material favorable evidence was left unaddressed; 2) the IJ's analysis for concluding that plaintiff did not reasonably fear future persecution was not adequately grounded in the record; and 3) the IJ's behavior at trial toward plaintiff and his expert witness show an apparent bias on the part of the IJ, and thus plaintiff was denied a meaningful opportunity to be heard before a neutral IJ as required by statute and regulation.

U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, May 04, 2009
Arellano-Hernandez v. US, No. 07-3945
Petition for review of a denial of application for cancellation of removal and denial of motion to remand is denied where: 1) the Board of Immigration Appeals did not abuse its discretion in affirming the immigration judge's determination that the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) cancellation application was untimely and waived; and 2) the Board was not required to rule on merits of VAWA cancellation claim.

U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, May 04, 2009
US v. Molina, No. 08-1368
Sentence for illegally reentering the United States after being deported is affirmed where: 1) district court did not err in sentencing defendant without considering the cost of his prison sentence and the amount of dollars that might be saved by imposing a lesser sentence, and without considering that he would be deported after serving his sentence; and 2) the court did not abuse its discretion in imposing a sentence at top of advisory guidelines range.