CA1 Finds BIA Did Not Err in Vacating IJ’s Grant of Cancellation to Guatemalan Petitioner

The court upheld the BIA’s vacatur of the IJ’s grant of cancellation of removal as to the petitioner, who argued that his U.S.-citizen children would suffer exceptional and extremely unusual hardship if he were removed to Guatemala. The court rejected the petitioner’s arguments that the BIA had committed legal error by failing to state whether it accepted the IJ’s factual findings or rejected them as clearly erroneous, by engaging in its own factfinding, and by failing to consider certain key facts cited by the IJ. Specifically, the court determined that a slight difference in the way the BIA and IJ described the petitioner’s testimony did not warrant setting aside the BIA’s ruling. (Domingo-Mendez v. Garland, 8/31/22)