Rashid Abdulai v. Attorney General United States


NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _____________ No. 20-2305 _____________ RASHID ABDULAI, Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA _______________ On Petition for Review of a Final Administrative Removal Order of the Department of Homeland Security (Agency No. A216-473-874) Immigration Judge: Alice Song Hartye _______________ Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) November 16, 2021 Before: AMBRO, JORDAN, and RENDELL, Circuit Judges (Filed: August 10, 2022) _______________ OPINION ∗ _______________ ∗ This disposition is not an opinion of the full court and, pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7, does not constitute binding precedent. JORDAN, Circuit Judge. The Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) placed Rashid Abdulai in expedited removal proceedings, charging him with being removable as a person convicted of an aggravated felony. It eventually issued a Final Administrative Removal Order (“FARO”), and Abdulai filed a petition for review. He challenges the DHS’s legal conclusion that his prior conviction for conspiracy to commit fraud was an aggravated felony, and he also asserts that the government’s handling of his case violated his procedural due process rights. For the following reasons, we will dismiss the petition for review. I. BACKGROUND Abdulai is a native and citizen of Ghana who entered the United States in September 2013 with a non-immigrant visitor visa. He overstayed his visa’s departure deadline. Years later, in November 2018, he was indicted in federal court in Tennessee for money laundering and for conspiring to commit bank fraud, wire fraud, and mail fraud. The indictment alleged that, in furtherance of a scheme to defraud businesses and individuals, Abdulai: received a check from one victim for approximately $15,000; received wire transfers from other victims and from co-conspirators in amounts totaling $48,000; and sent wire transfers to co-conspirators in amounts totaling $42,000. He pled guilty to the conspiracy charge; the money-laundering charge was dismissed. A presentence investigation report added more details about Abdulai’s involvement in the scheme. It concluded that the total loss amount attributable to his involvement was approximately $145,000, and a supplement to the report described how 2 Abdulai impersonated a woman on Facebook in order to trick a man from Georgia into mailing Abdulai’s wife a check for $51,000. Based on the presentence report and supplement, Abdulai was ordered to pay $51,000 in restitution and was sentenced to a prison term of twelve months and one day. On March 10, 2020, DHS served Abdulai with a Notice of Intent to Issue a FARO. The Notice of Intent charged Abdulai with being deportable under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii) because he was convicted of an aggravated felony, as defined in 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(M) and (U). DHS issued the FARO on April 22, 2020, and it was served on Abdulai on May 26. After receiving the FARO, Abdulai sought protection from removal, and, after consideration by an asylum officer and an immigration judge (“IJ”), Abdulai was scheduled for “withholding-only proceedings.” Those proceedings went forward, and the IJ denied Abdulai’s application in an order that was served on November 6, …

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