PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT ________________ Nos. 19-1408, 20-2078 ________________ B.C.,1 Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ________________ On Petition for Review of a Final Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (Agency No. A216-285-558) Immigration Judge: John P. Ellington ________________ Argued on January 12, 2021 Before: AMBRO, KRAUSE, and PHIPPS, Circuit Judges (Opinion filed: September 1, 2021) 1 We have authorized the petitioner to proceed pseudonymously. Benjamin J. Hooper Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center 294 Pleasant Acres Road, Suite 202 York, PA 17402 Arthur N. Read Justice at Work 990 Spring Garden Street, Suite 300 Philadelphia, PA 19123 Sozi P. Tulante (Argued) Dechert 2929 Arch Street, 18th Floor, Cira Centre Philadelphia, PA 19104 Counsel for Petitioner Merrick Garland Carmel A. Morgan Lisa Morinelli Tim Ramnitz (Argued) United States Department of Justice Office of Immigration Litigation P.O. Box 878 Ben Franklin Station Washington, D.C. 20044 Counsel for Respondent 2 Matthew J. Lamberti Community Justice Project 100 Fifth Avenue, Suite 900 Pittsburgh, PA 15222 Counsel for Amici American Immigration Council, American Immigration Lawyers Association, Casa San Jose, Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, National Immigrant Justice Center, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, and Unitarian Universalist Congregation of York Michael Broadbent Cozen O’Connor 1650 Market Street One Liberty Place, Suite 2800 Philadelphia, PA 19103 Counsel for Amici Guatemalan-Maya Center, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, Kids in Need of Defense, and Southern Poverty Law Center Mary Beth Lyon Cornell Law School Clinical Program 133 Hughes Hall Ithaca, NY 14853 Counsel for Amici Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Public Justice Center, Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, and Dolores Street Community Services 3 Edward J. Sholinsky Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis 1600 Market Street, Suite 3600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 Counsel for Amici HIAS Pennsylvania, Esperanza Immigration Legal Services, Chris Rabb, AFRICOM, and VietLead Sarah H. Paoletti University of Pennsylvania School of Law Transnational Legal Clinic 3501 Sansom Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 Counsel for Amici Zeid Al Hussein, Fernando Chang-Muy, Juan Mendez, Jennifer Moore, Anne C. Richard, David Robinson, Michel Gabaudan, Ian Matthew Kysel, Jaya Ramji- Nogales, and Eric Schwartz 4 ________________ OPINION OF THE COURT ________________ AMBRO, Circuit Judge The stakes in removal proceedings—whether a noncitizen2 will be deported—could hardly be higher. But despite the high stakes, the outcomes of these proceedings sometimes turn on minutiae. Small inconsistencies in a noncitizen’s testimony can doom even those cases that might otherwise warrant relief. To ensure testimony is not unfairly characterized as inconsistent, a noncitizen must be able to communicate effectively with the officials deciding his case. Because language barriers can make effective communication impossible, our Court has long recognized the importance of a competent interpreter to ensure the fairness of proceedings to individuals who do not speak English. But what happens if an immigration official does not make a meaningful effort to determine whether a noncitizen has limited proficiency in English? Our case exemplifies this problem. Petitioner B.C., a native of Cameroon, primarily speaks “Pidgin” English, and reports that he …
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