Avdalyan

Zinaida Avdalyan (“Avdalyan”) petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’s (BIA’s) denial of her motion to remand her case to the Immigration Judge (IJ), so that she may apply for adjustment of status. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 (a). We grant Avdalyan’s petition for review, vacate the BIA’s order, and remand for further proceedings.

Avdalyan, a then-seventy-four-year-old citizen of Armenia and native of Ukraine, traveled to Los Angeles International Airport with her grandson on February 3, 2003. Airport officials detained the travelers because the grandson’s visa was a counterfeit. Avdalyan denied that she was aware that the visa was invalid, but officials charged her with removability for having “knowingly ... encouraged, induced, assisted, abetted, or aided” another alien’s attempt to enter the United States unlawfully. See 8 U.S.C. § 1182 (a)(6)(E)(i). In addition to denying the alien-smuggling charge, Avdalyan sought asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture.

Relying substantially on statements that Avdalyan made while detained at the airport, the IJ found that Avdalyan’s testimony was not credible,…