Mark Stephen Gomes Sworna Jacinta Gomes Methew Gomes v. Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General

Petitioners, Mark, and Sworna Gomes and their son, Methew, natives and citizens of Bangladesh and members of the Catholic faith, seek asylum or withholding of deportation based on their fear of persecution should they be returned to Bangladesh. The Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) denied petitioners relief and petitioners filed a timely petition for review pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We deny the petition for review.

I

Petitioners entered the United States in 1991 or 1992, and applied for asylum and withholding of deportation in 1995. On June 22, 1995, an Immigration Judge (“IJ”) rejected petitioners’ claim of persecution based on their status as active Christians and denied relief. Petitioners appealed to the BIA which on June 10, 1996, affirmed the denial of asylum.

Petitioners did not file a petition for review from the BIA’s June 1996 order. In September 1996, however, they filed a motion to reopen with the BIA alleging that conditions in Bangladesh had deteriorated since 1995 for Christians and that the new government would not protect them from Muslim extremists. The BIA granted the motion to reopen and remanded the case to the IJ for further proceedings. The BIA…