Gurmit Singh v. Chris Vasquez

MEMORANDUM

Petitioner-Appellant Gurmit Singh is a native and citizen of India. He arrived in New York City without a passport or visa in 1993. He told immigration officials his name was Manjeet Singh and gave a false birth date because, he later explained, he was advised to do so by the man he paid to smuggle him out of India. Singh was paroled and ordered to appear at an exclusion hearing. Instead, Singh traveled to California, where he applied for asylum using his true name and birth date. Finding credible his assertion of political persecution, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”) granted Singh asylum in 1996.

In 1999, in connection with its review of Singh’s application for adjustment of status, the INS discovered that Singh had been ordered excluded in absentia under the false name before the agency granted him asylum. The agency summarily rescinded Singh’s asylum status by means of a letter, which explained that the agency did not have jurisdiction to consider asylum applications in cases where the applicant was already in exclusion proceedings, so that its grant of asylum to Singh was void.

Almost a decade later, Singh was detained pending removal. He…