Doris Amponsah v. Eric Holder, Jr.

Doris Amponsah Apori seeks review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) decision upholding the immigration judge’s pretermission of her adjustment of status application. The BIA pretermitted Apori’s application on the ground that Apori did not satisfy the definition of “child” under 8 U.S.C. § 1101 (b)(1)(E) because she was not adopted before her 16th birthday. The BIA applied its precedent imposing a blanket rule against giving effect to state court adoption decrees entered nunc pro tunc after a child turned 16. The BIA thus refused to give effect to a Washington state court judgment decreeing that Apori’s adoption occurred before her 16th birthday. Apori petitioned for review.

We hold that the BIA’s blanket rule against recognizing state courts’ nunc pro tunc adoption decrees constitutes an impermissible construction of § 1101(b)(1)(E) under Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 843 , 104 S.Ct. 2778 , 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). The BIA’s interpretation is unreasonable because it gives little or no weight to the federal policy of keeping families together, fails to afford deference to valid state court judgments in an area of…