Kamalthas v. Immigration and Naturalization Service

251 F.3d 1279 (2001)

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Kamalthas v. Immigration and Naturalization Service

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
251 F.3d 1279 (2001)

Facts

In December 1996, Navaratwam Kamalthas (defendant) came to the United States from Sri Lanka. Kamalthas presented a false passport at the airport in Portland, Oregon, and requested permission to transit to Canada without a visa. When the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) (plaintiff) detained him, Kamalthas applied for asylum and withholding of deportation. At a hearing before an immigration judge (IJ), Kamalthas testified that the Tamil Tigers attempted to recruit him and that he was beaten when he refused to join the Tamil Tigers. Kamalthas testified that he was later captured and tortured for five days by the Sri Lankan police. The IJ found that Kamalthas’s testimony was not credible and denied his application for asylum and withholding of deportation. The BIA affirmed the IJ’s decision, finding that Kamalthas’s account of past persecution lacked credibility and denied his motion to reopen the proceedings. A panel from the Ninth Circuit upheld the BIA’s credibility assessment for Kamalthas’s asylum and withholding-of-deportation application but allowed Kamalthas to file a motion to reopen the proceedings to consider the applicability of the Convention Against Torture. The BIA denied Kamalthas’s motion, finding that Kamalthas submitted no new facts that he would prove at a new hearing given that he merely resubmitted his asylum application along with an unsigned affidavit. The BIA found Kamalthas’s motion failed to make a prima facie case under the Convention Against Torture. Kamalthas appealed to the Ninth Circuit for the denial of the motion to reopen proceedings, arguing that he faced a substantial risk of torture if he was sent back to Sri Lanka, entitling him to relief under the Convention Against Torture.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Fletcher, J.)

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