PUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 20-1924 JAVIER CHAVEZ GONZALEZ, Petitioner, v. MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. Argued: September 21, 2021 Decided: October 20, 2021 Before FLOYD, THACKER, and HARRIS, Circuit Judges. Petition for review granted in part and denied in part; vacated and remanded by published opinion. Judge Thacker wrote the opinion, in which Judge Floyd and Judge Harris joined. ARGUED: Benjamin Ross Winograd, IMMIGRANT & REFUGEE APPELLATE CENTER, LLC, Alexandria, Virginia, for Petitioner. Sara J. Bayram, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. ON BRIEF: Rebekah G. Grafton, FAY GRAFTON NUNEZ, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Petitioner. Brian M. Boynton, Acting Assistant Attorney General, John W. Blakeley, Assistant Director, Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. THACKER, Circuit Judge: In August 2016, Javier Chavez Gonzalez (“Petitioner”) was granted deferred action on his removal from the United States pursuant to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (“DACA”). As a result of his conviction for a misdemeanor in North Carolina, the United States Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) terminated Petitioner’s grant of deferred action, and Petitioner was immediately placed in removal proceedings. However, during the course of his proceedings before the immigration judge (“IJ”), DHS officially restored Petitioner’s DACA grant of deferred action. As a result, Petitioner asked the IJ to either administratively close his case, terminate the removal proceedings, or grant a continuance based on his mother’s pending application to be a legal permanent resident (“LPR”). The IJ denied all requests for relief, and Petitioner appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”). While the matter was pending in the BIA, Petitioner’s mother obtained LPR status, and Petitioner filed a motion to remand with the BIA. The BIA affirmed the IJ’s decision and denied the motion to remand. Relying on Matter of S-O-G- & F-D-B-, 27 I. & N. Dec. 462 (A.G. 2018), the BIA reasoned that neither the IJs nor the BIA possess the authority to terminate removal proceedings. The BIA also found administrative closure and a continuance to be inappropriate based on the speculative possibility of Petitioner’s mother earning LPR status. The BIA denied the motion to remand because Petitioner failed to present prima facie evidence that his mother’s LPR status would qualify him for cancellation of removal. Petitioner timely filed this petition for review. 2 We hold today that the IJs and BIA possess the inherent authority to terminate removal proceedings, abrogating Matter of S-O-G- & F-D-B-. We likewise conclude the BIA improperly denied Petitioner’s request for administrative closure because it failed to address Petitioner’s specific argument based on his DACA status. However, we find no error in the IJ’s decision to deny Petitioner’s request for a continuance and the BIA’s decision to deny the motion to remand. We therefore grant the petition for review in part, deny it in part, vacate the BIA’s decision, and remand …
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