Younes James Jerke v. U.S. Attorney General


USCA11 Case: 21-11578 Date Filed: 02/14/2022 Page: 1 of 12 [DO NOT PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 21-11578 Non-Argument Calendar ____________________ YOUNES JAMES JERKE, Petitioner, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ____________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals Agency No. A094-697-200 ____________________ USCA11 Case: 21-11578 Date Filed: 02/14/2022 Page: 2 of 12 2 Opinion of the Court 21-11578 Before JILL PRYOR, BRANCH, and GRANT, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Younes James Jerke petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals affirming an immigration judge’s or- der of removal and denial of his application for deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture. We dismiss the petition for lack of jurisdiction. I. Jerke entered this country from Sudan in 2006, when he was about 15 years old, as a beneficiary of his father’s status as a refugee. He became a lawful permanent resident of the United States two years later. In 2018, however, the Department of Homeland Secu- rity initiated removal proceedings. The government’s Notice to Appear charged that Jerke was a native and citizen of Sudan, and that he was removable because of his conviction for armed robbery, which was an aggravated fel- ony under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). See 8 U.S.C. §§ 1101(a)(43)(F)–(G), 1227(a)(2)(iii). Jerke, appearing pro se before an immigration judge, admitted that he was a native and citizen of Sudan, as charged. He also admitted that he had been convicted of armed robbery in Georgia and received a sentence of ten years, with five years to serve in confinement and the remain- der on probation, for that offense. Based on those admissions, the immigration judge sustained the charges against Jerke. Jerke had USCA11 Case: 21-11578 Date Filed: 02/14/2022 Page: 3 of 12 21-11578 Opinion of the Court 3 not designated a country of removal, so the immigration judge des- ignated Sudan, the country of Jerke’s citizenship, as the country to which Jerke would be removed. See 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(2)(A), (D). Jerke later submitted an application for asylum and with- holding of removal, which he completed without the assistance of an attorney. He sought deferral of removal under the United Na- tions Convention Against Torture (CAT), 1 stating that he feared that if he returned to his home country, he would be tortured or killed. On the application, he listed his country of birth, his nation- ality at birth, and his present nationality and citizenship all as “Su- dan.” After Jerke submitted his application for asylum and with- holding of removal, he retained counsel. At his first appearance, Jerke’s attorney notified the immigration judge that he would seek to introduce documentation regarding South Sudan at the merits hearing. Counsel acknowledged that Jerke was born in Sudan (not South Sudan) and that South Sudan had not been designated as the country of removal, but he stated that “we would like to introduce documentation about southern Sudan so we can …

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Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals