Sarbjit Singh v. Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General

This case presents yet another due process challenge to the Notice of Appeal and summary dismissal procedures employed by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”). „

For more than thirty years, BIA regulations have authorized summary dismissal of appeals for which the petitioner fails to adequately specify the grounds for error. The regulations were later amended to also authorize summary dismissal where the petitioner indicates an intent to file a brief, but subsequently fails either to file the brief or explain his failure to do so. In this appeal, the petitioner claims that both regulations operated to violate his due process rights.

While we have in the past criticized the potential for confusion posed by the BIA’s strict specificity requirement, the amended regulation authorizing dismissal for failure to file a brief does not suffer from the same defects. Moreover, the actions of petitioner’s counsel in this case persuade us that, rather than a due process violation based on the BIA’s summary dismissal procedures, the petitioner has alleged a classic case of ineffective assistance of counsel. Accordingly, we deny petitioner’s due process claim based on the summary…