NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 21a0272n.06 No. 20-3858 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED ) Jun 03, 2021 LAHIB NAMET FARAJ NAM KANONA, ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk ) Petitioner, ) ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW v. ) FROM THE UNITED STATES MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, ) BOARD OF IMMIGRATION ) APPEALS ) Respondent. ) Before: GIBBONS, KETHLEDGE, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges. KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judge. In 1994, Lahib Kanona was convicted of violent felonies involving a firearm. He was ordered removed to Iraq in 1997. For many years, Kanona remained in the United States under a supervision order, despite being arrested again on several occasions. In 2017, Kanona failed to report for a mandatory appointment with the Department of Homeland Security. The Department eventually located and detained Kanona after he was arrested on an assault charge. He thereafter moved to reopen his removal proceedings due to changed conditions in Iraq. The Board of Immigration Appeals denied his motion; Kanona petitioned for review of that decision. We reject his arguments and deny the petition. I. Kanona was born in Iraq and identifies as a Chaldean Christian. He entered the United States in 1977. In 1994, he was convicted in Michigan of assault with intent to do great bodily harm, possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and carrying a concealed weapon. Case No. 20-3858, Kanona v. Garland Meanwhile, the government began removal proceedings against him, based in part on his felony firearm conviction. See 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(C). An IJ ordered him removed to Iraq. Kanona appealed, but the Board affirmed the IJ’s decision. Yet the government allowed him to remain in the United States under a supervision order, which remained in effect after his release from prison. See 8 C.F.R. § 241.5. Kanona was fined in 2009 for disorderly conduct and in 2013 for disturbing the peace. Later in 2013 he was also arrested for larceny. In 2017, Kanona failed to appear at a scheduled appointment with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under his supervision order. Kanona remained a fugitive from DHS until June 2019, when police in Sterling Heights, Michigan arrested him for assault. Immigration officials then took him into custody and revoked his supervision order. Kanona thereafter moved to reopen his removal proceedings, arguing that he was eligible for deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). That motion was untimely by more than 20 years. See 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(c)(7)(C)(i). But Kanona argued that he would be tortured upon his return to Iraq because of his status as a Chaldean Christian and his prior residence in the United States. In support, Kanona introduced dozens of documents on current conditions in Iraq, including news articles and expert reports. DHS opposed the motion and introduced its own voluminous documentary evidence refuting Kanona’s characterization of conditions in Iraq. The Board denied Kanona’s motion on multiple grounds, finding among other things that Kanona had not shown that he would be …
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