Zhen

MEMORANDUM ***

Zhen Ching Shui, a native of China, petitions for review of the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) ordering him deported to China. In his petition for review, Zhen challenges the immigration judge’s decision to deny his request for a continuance of his asylum hearing. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 and grant the petition for review.

I.

Zhen Ching Shui, a Chinese citizen, was born in Fujian, China on July 2, 1981. As a teenager, Zhen had an altercation with agents of China’s Birth Planning Department, who then told his parents that Zhen would be sterilized at age twenty. Zhen’s parents, fearful for his safety, put him on a boat to Guam, where Zhen’s uncle resided.

On September 16, 1998, Zhen was apprehended while attempting to enter the United States near Agana, Guam. Zhen did not possess a valid entry document, so the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) took him into custody. Since Zhen was an unaccompanied juvenile, and because Guam does not have a detention facility for juveniles, the INS transferred Zhen to the Southwest Key Juvenile Shelter in Arizona. On September 21, 1998, the INS served Zhen with a Notice to…