USCA11 Case: 21-13382 Document: 54-1 Date Filed: 07/28/2023 Page: 1 of 20 [PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 21-13382 ____________________ FRANCO P. CLEMENT, Petitioner, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ____________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals Agency No. A040-379-929 ____________________ USCA11 Case: 21-13382 Document: 54-1 Date Filed: 07/28/2023 Page: 2 of 20 2 Opinion of the Court 21-13382 Before ROSENBAUM, BRANCH, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges. BRASHER, Circuit Judge: This appeal comes to us on a petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals. During removal proceedings, Franco Clement wrote to the Board of Immigration Appeals asking to withdraw his appeal of an immigration judge’s decision and to be deported. The Board granted his withdrawal request. He now as- serts that the federal laws governing derivative citizenship are un- constitutional and seeks a declaration that he is a U.S. citizen as a judicial remedy. We conclude that Clement forfeited judicial re- view of this claim when he deliberately withdrew his appeal to the Board and asked to be deported. Accordingly, we deny his petition for review. I. Franco Clement was born in Liberia in 1971 to parents who never married. Shortly after his birth, his father obtained a decree of legitimation from a Liberian court. Then in 1979, Clement’s fa- ther naturalized to U.S. citizenship. Clement’s mother later also naturalized to U.S. citizenship—after Clement’s eighteenth birth- day. And in 1986, when Clement was a teenager, he began to reside in the United States as a lawful permanent resident. After his admission to the United States, Clement was con- victed of four criminal offenses relevant to the removal proceed- ings against him: two offenses under New Jersey law for possessing a controlled substance with intent to distribute it, one offense USCA11 Case: 21-13382 Document: 54-1 Date Filed: 07/28/2023 Page: 3 of 20 21-13382 Opinion of the Court 3 under North Carolina law for possessing a controlled substance with intent to sell or deliver it, and one federal mail fraud offense. Because of these convictions, the Department of Homeland Secu- rity initiated removal proceedings against Clement in 2020. Before an immigration judge in the Department of Justice, DHS alleged that Clement is a citizen of Liberia and not a U.S. cit- izen. In response, Clement asserted U.S. citizenship based on his parents’ citizenship and moved to terminate the removal proceed- ings against him. The law that applies to a claim of derivative citi- zenship is “the law in effect when the last material condition [for obtaining derivative citizenship] was met.” Levy v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 882 F.3d 1364, 1366 n.1 (11th Cir. 2018). And so, Clement’s asser- tion of citizenship turned on an application of the now-repealed 8 U.S.C. § 1432(a). When Clement began residing in the United States in 1986, former Section 1432(a) provided three paths to citizenship for “[a] child born outside of the United States” to noncitizen parents. First, a child may become a citizen …
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