Ehi Joseph Unuakhaulu v. John Ashcroft, Attorney General

Ehi Joseph Unuakhaulu, a native and citizen of Nigeria, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeal’s (“BIA”) summary affirmance of the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) decision denying him withholding of removal and relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). The central question is whether we lack jurisdiction to review his petition where the IJ, although denying Unuakhau-lu’s asylum application because of his prior conviction for an aggravated felony, did not rely on that aggravated felony in denying Unuakhaulu’s application for withholding of removal and for relief under CAT. We conclude that 8 U.S.C. § 1252 (a)(2)(C) divests us only of jurisdiction to review orders of removal that are actually based on a petitioner’s prior aggravated felony conviction. We therefore have jurisdiction to review the BIA’s nondiscretionary denial of withholding, which was not predicated on Unuakhaulu’s aggravated felony. Reaching the substance of Unuakhaulu’s petition, however, we deny it as without merit.

I.

Unuakhaulu was admitted to the United States as a visitor on January 17,1986. In February 1997, he was convicted of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit credit cards in…