United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 19-1714 ___________________________ Abdulkadir Omar Shire lllllllllllllllllllllPetitioner v. William P. Barr, Attorney General of the United States lllllllllllllllllllllRespondent ____________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals ____________ Submitted: May 14, 2020 Filed: July 23, 2020 ____________ Before SMITH, Chief Judge, MELLOY and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges. ____________ SHEPHERD, Circuit Judge. Abdulkadir Shire, a native and citizen of Somalia, petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) upholding the decision of an immigration judge (IJ) denying Shire’s motion to reopen removal proceedings based on changed country conditions in Somalia, his country of origin. For the following reasons, we deny the petition for review. I. In 2001, Shire was lawfully admitted to the United States as a refugee, and, in 2004, he obtained lawful permanent resident status. In 2006, Shire pled guilty to two drug offenses under Minnesota law: sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, in violation of Minn. Stat. § 152.023 subdiv. 1(a) and possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, in violation of Minn. Stat. § 152.023 subdiv. 2(a)(1). Shire was sentenced to a term of 170 days imprisonment and probation. Based on Shire’s convictions, the Department of Homeland Security initiated removal proceedings, charging Shire with being removable pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(B)(i) as an alien convicted of a controlled substance offense. Shire conceded removability, and on April 15, 2008, the IJ ordered him removed from the United States to Somalia. On July 30, 2018, more than ten years after the final removal order, Shire, who was still in the United States, filed a motion to reopen his removal proceedings to apply for asylum. Shire sought relief based on changed country conditions in Somalia, an expressly stated exception to the general 90-day time frame to file a motion to reopen removal proceedings. See 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(c)(7)(C). Shire identified the rise of the terrorist groups ISIS-Somalia and al-Shabaab as demonstrating changed country conditions from the time of Shire’s original removal proceedings in 2008. The IJ denied Shire’s motion to reopen his removal proceedings based on changed country conditions. After first noting the heavy burden a party bears in demonstrating why a case should be reopened, the IJ explained that Shire failed to compare any evidence of the status of al-Shabaab in Somalia in 2018 with the status of Islamic terrorist groups in 2008, when removal proceedings began. The IJ noted that al-Shabaab came into prominence in 2006 and was using the same tactics in 2018 -2- that it had been using in 2008. On this basis, the IJ determined that Shire failed to demonstrate changed country conditions to warrant granting the motion to reopen. The IJ also determined that Shire failed to demonstrate a substantial likelihood of a different outcome in his case if the IJ granted the motion to reopen. The IJ first determined that Shire’s conviction for sale of a controlled substance was ...
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