ABADI v. SESSIONS III (2018)

ORDER ON REHEARING *

Mr. Mehrdad Noori Hossain Abadi (Mr. Noori), a native and citizen of Iran, has filed a petition for panel rehearing. In an order and judgment filed September 11, 2018, we denied his petition for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) denying his motion to reopen his removal proceedings. We concluded that Mr. Noori had not demonstrated that there has been a significant increase in the persecution of converts from Islam to Christianity in Iran since the time of his removal proceedings in the 1990s.

In his petition for rehearing, Mr. Noori observes that one day before our decision was filed in this case, the BIA granted a motion to reopen in another case involving an Iranian citizen who had received a final order of removal in 2000 and who, like Mr. Noori, had converted from Islam to Christianity in 2017. See In re Mohajer-Soltani, No. Axxx-xx9-081 (BIA Sept. 10, 2018). Mr. Noori claims that although the evidence Mr. Mohajer-Soltani submitted to show an increase in the persecution of Christian converts in Iran concerns a slightly later period than the evidence Mr. Noori submitted, it is similar in “content, context and quantity.” Pet. for Reh’g at 12. He therefore posits that the BIA has acted in an unacceptably inconsistent manner.

Having reviewed the evidence submitted in both cases, we grant the petition for panel rehearing, vacate our order and judgment, grant the petition for review, vacate the BIA’s order denying Mr. Noori’s motion to reopen, and remand this matter to the BIA with instructions to reconsider the motion to reopen in light of its decision in In re Mohajer-Soltani. If on reconsideration the BIA denies Mr. Noori’s motion to reopen, the BIA should explain how it has distinguished the merits of Mr. Noori’s motion to reopen from the merits of Mr. Mohajer-Soltani’s motion to reopen. This Order on Rehearing will serve as this court’s mandate.

Monroe G. McKay, Circuit Judge