Armen Amirkhanyan v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Armen Amirkhanyan and Gayane Ma-ghakyan, natives and citizens of Armenia, petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) order denying their motion to reopen based on ineffective assistance of counsel. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We review for abuse of discretion the denial of a motion to reopen and review de novo claims of due process violations. Mohammed v. Gonzales, 400 F.3d 785, 791-92 (9th Cir.2005). We grant the petition for review and remand for further proceedings.

The BIA abused its discretion in denying petitioners’ motion to reopen based on the ineffective assistance of the attorney who represented them before the agency, where petitioners established that their attorney failed to sufficiently prepare their case, they advised their attorney of available corroborating evidence but the attorney failed to introduce such evidence, and these failures may have affected the agency’s adverse credibility finding. See Mohammed, 400 F.3d at 793-94 (prejudice results when counsel’s actions may have affected the outcome of proceedings). Moreover, the BIA’s failure to mention the highly probative affidavits of the two witnesses who…