Law360 (January 8, 2021, 10:14 PM EST) — Immigration judges are qualified to identify fraudulent documents without outside analysis, the Board of Immigration Appeals determined Friday, tossing a Nigerian man’s bid for deportation relief based in part on evidence he provided that spelled Nigeria as “Nageia.”
Citing heavily from the BIA, immigration court and appeals court precedent, Judge Garry D. Malphrus affirmed immigration judges’ capacity to evaluate “obvious defects” in evidence presented to them, provided they gave migrants the opportunity to explain those flaws.
“Courts have long recognized that immigration judges may find that documents are not genuine if they contain ‘hallmarks of fraud,’ which include misspellings, overwriting, incorrect…
