NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 22a0273n.06 Nos. 19-3339/21-3895 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT ) FILED HADEEL KHALASAWI Jul 12, 2022 ) Petitioner, DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk ) ) v. ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW ) FROM THE BOARD OF MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, ) IMMIGRATION APPEALS Respondent. ) ) Before: SUTTON, Chief Judge; KETHLEDGE and READLER, Circuit Judges. KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judge. In 1998, the Board of Immigration Appeals ordered that Hadeel Khalasawi be removed to Iraq. He remained in the United States under orders of supervision until 2017, when the government detained him and many others for the purpose of carrying out their orders of removal. Khalasawi then applied for relief under the Convention Against Torture. The Board denied relief and later denied his motion to reopen and reconsider. Khalasawi petitions for review of both decisions. We dismiss in part and deny in part his petitions for review. I. Hadeel Khalasawi was born in Iraq and entered the United States in 1980, at six years old. He is a Chaldean Catholic, baptized in Detroit a few months after he arrived. In 1993 he was convicted in Michigan of assault with intent to do great bodily harm; the government thereafter Nos. 19-3339/21-3895, Khalasawi v. Garland began removal proceedings. In 1998, an immigration judge ordered him removed and the Board dismissed his appeal. For many years, however, Iraq refused to repatriate Iraqi nationals with orders of removal. See Hamama v. Adducci, 912 F.3d 869, 872 (6th Cir. 2018). Khalasawi thus remained in the United States under orders of supervision. Khalasawi’s criminal history since then includes misdemeanor domestic violence in 2005, assault with a dangerous weapon in 2005, delivering or manufacturing marijuana in 2006, misdemeanor assault and battery in 2010, and attempted larceny of a building in 2017. In 2017, Iraq began to cooperate with repatriation efforts. Id. That June, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement arrested Khalasawi at his home as part of “Operation Crosscheck,” in which ICE sought to detain people with outstanding orders of removal to Iraq. Khalasawi later moved to reopen his removal proceedings based on changed conditions in Iraq. The Board agreed to reopen his case. Khalasawi then applied for relief under the Convention Against Torture, arguing that, as a Chaldean Catholic, he would be tortured if he returned to Iraq. In support of his application, Khalasawi attached expert declarations, news articles, and country reports from the State Department. In 2018, an immigration judge denied Khalasawi’s application for deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture. The Board affirmed. Khalasawi then filed a motion to reopen proceedings and to reconsider the denial of relief, which the Board denied in 2021. now petitions for review of the Board’s decisions. II. Where, as here, the Board issues its own opinion, we review that opinion as the final agency determination; we also review the immigration judge’s decision to the extent the Board adopted its reasoning. See Zhao v. Holder, 569 F.3d 238, 246 (6th Cir. 2009). We …
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