Cherifi

*520 MEMORANDUM ***

Riadh Ben Mansour Cherifi petitions for review of a summary dismissal by a single member of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) of an appeal from a decision of an immigration judge (IJ) denying of withholding of removal. We grant the petition for review. Because the parties are familiar with the factual and procedural history of this case, we will not recount it here.

I

The BIA properly rejected the IJ’s reliance on 8 C.F.R. § 1208.10 (1998) in deeming the petitioner’s application for withholding of removal abandoned for failure to submit fingerprints. When the IJ considered Cherifi’s petition, § 1208.10 provided, in relevant part:

As the BIA correctly recognized, this regulation pertains to interviews before asylum officers and does not apply to proceedings before immigration judges. 1 Therefore, as the BIA held, the IJ erred in determining Cherifi’s request for withholding to have been abandoned for failure to comply with the regulation. However, the BIA affirmed the decision of the IJ on the ground that Cherifi had failed to comply with 8 C.F.R. § 1003.81 (c) relating to filing of documents before an IJ.

II

Cherifi argues that the BIA violated his…