Immigration – False ID – Adjustment of status

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Where the Board of Immigration Appeals reversed a petitioner’s adjustment of status, the BIA engaged in impermissible fact-finding regarding the petitioner’s intent when he provided the police with a license bearing a false name, so a remand must be ordered.

“Johan Jose Taveras Martínez (‘Petitioner’ or ‘Mr. Taveras Martínez’) appeals the Board of Immigration Appeals’s (BIA) reversal of his adjustment of status. He claims that the BIA erred in reversing his adjustment of status because it impermissibly relied on a fact not included in the record in front of the Immigration Judge (IJ). The government (‘Respondent’ or the ‘Government’) asserts that the BIA did not engage in impermissible factfinding and instead simply reweighed the evidence before the IJ de novo and found against Petitioner.

“For the following reasons, we find Petitioner’s claim persuasive and reverse and remand the case to the BIA. …

“On February 22, 2017, Mr. Taveras Martínez was pulled over while driving a car registered to Jose González. When police asked him for identification, he produced a license bearing a false name (‘false ID’). …

“On November 2, 2022, Mr. Taveras Martínez filed a Form I-485 for adjustment of status to become a permanent resident. After a hearing on the merits on January 18, 2023, the IJ granted the application for adjustment of status. The IJ found that Mr. Taveras Martínez testified credibly, admitted that he used false documents to obtain work, had no criminal record, and had positive discretionary factors which weighed in his favor, including his marriage to [Jennifer] Ríos, a U.S. citizen, his U.S. citizen child, and his employment. The IJ acknowledged Mr. Taveras Martínez’s use of false documents but ultimately determined that evidence of such was insufficient to deny the application. …

“DHS appealed the IJ’s decision to the BIA. On July 31, 2024, the BIA sustained DHS’s appeal. In its order, the BIA noted the positive equities in Petitioner’s case, including his marriage to a U.S. citizen, his gainful employment, and his U.S. citizen child. However, the BIA also considered a variety of factors related to Petitioner’s ‘criminal behavior,’ including ‘provid[ing] … false identification to police in order to avoid criminal prosecution.’ Ultimately, the BIA found that Mr. Taveras Martínez’s ‘positive equities … [did] not outweigh [his] criminal behavior.’ Thus, it denied his application for adjustment of status and ordered that he be removed to Venezuela. …

“For the following reasons, we hold that the BIA engaged in impermissible factfinding and reverse and remand to the BIA for proceedings consistent with this opinion. …

“Mr. Taveras Martínez claims that, during its re-weighing of the equities in his case, the BIA made impermissible findings as to his intent behind using the false ID. Petitioner maintains that this action by the BIA was improper because the IJ did not find any such fact in its review. … For the following reasons, we agree with Petitioner.

“… Here, the BIA exceeded its authority by finding that Petitioner used a false ID ‘to avoid criminal prosecution’ — a specific intent that was not an undisputed fact in the record before the IJ. … To support its proposition that Petitioner sought to avoid criminal prosecution through presentation of a false ID, the BIA cited the IJ’s decision, the transcript of the hearing before the IJ, and a mitigation letter from Petitioner’s defense counsel to the state district attorney’s office requesting pre-trial probation to resolve the case surrounding his 2017 arrest. But none of these cited documents contain information which states, either explicitly or implicitly, that Petitioner used a false ID to avoid criminal prosecution. The record only shows that Petitioner procured a false ID to obtain work. …

“… We find no evidence in the record which suggests that the IJ found, for a fact, that Petitioner intended to avoid criminal prosecution through his use of a false ID.

“… It is an error of law for the BIA to ignore its own regulations and engage in impermissible factfinding. … Therefore, we find that the BIA conducted additional factfinding beyond that of the IJ and acted beyond the scope of its authority, committing clear legal error and thus abusing its discretion. …

“Upon remand, the BIA should weigh the facts in Petitioner’s case without impermissible additions. We therefore reverse the BIA’s decision denying Petitioner’s adjustment of status and remand to the BIA for proceedings consistent with this opinion.”

Taveras Martínez v. Blanche (Lawyers Weekly No. 01-076-26) (15 pages) (Gelpí, J.) Ivan E. Mercado, with whom Mercado & Renegel were on brief, for the petitioner; Deitz P. Lefort, with whom John S. Hogan and Brian Boynton were on brief, for the respondent (Docket No. 24-1741) (April 17, 2026).

Click here to read the full text of the opinion.