Julieta Vitug Biggs v. Immigration and Naturalization Service

Julieta Vitug Biggs petitions for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decision finding her deportable and denying her application for discretionary relief. Although we agree that Biggs is deportable, we find that the BIA abused its discretion in evaluating her claim for relief from deportation. Accordingly, we remand to the BIA to allow Biggs to supplement her medical evidence and to reconsider whether she has established extreme hardship warranting relief from deportation.

BACKGROUND

Biggs arrived in the United States from the Philippines in April, 1980, as a nonimmi-grant visitor. During her visit, she married a United States citizen and obtained an adjustment of status to permanent resident. Her marriage later ended in divorce. Biggs remained in the United States, working in Alaska and in California. Occasionally she returned to the Philippines to visit her family, including her two children. Her most recent visit, in the Spring of 1985, lasted one month.

In 1988, she applied for naturalization and voluntarily appeared for an interview with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. During the interview, the INS examiner became suspicious of the circumstances…