Bartolo

MEMORANDUM

Zhercumerc Bartolo petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) decision affirming the procedural validity and substantive correctness of an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of his application for asylum, withholding of removal, relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), and voluntary departure. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 , and we grant the petition and remand to the Board with instructions.

Bartolo, who suffers from serious mental illness, was ordered removed following a hearing from which the Immigration Judge (“IJ”) excluded him out of concern that he might disrupt the proceedings or cause an “incident” due to his illness. Once Bartolo was outside of the courtroom, Bartolo’s counsel withdrew most of the grounds for asylum presented in Bar-tolo’s application, asserting that he “d[idn’t] believe” that these grounds in fact formed a valid basis for relief. Although Bartolo had sought voluntary departure as an alternative, his counsel informed the IJ that he did not believe Bartolo was capable of making a request for or complying with an order granting voluntary departure. Bartolo was not present during his counsel’s…