Bid to Avoid Removal Doomed by Dropped Application in 1990s

An abandoned application for lawful permanent residence years earlier demonstrated a Massachusetts man, now fighting his removal from the US, hadn’t intended to remain in the country, the First Circuit ruled.

In 2022, the Department of Homeland Security provided notice of its intent to remove Sunil Sharma whose application for permanent residence had been denied in 1996. Sharma asserted that he was not removable because he had derived US citizenship through his mother when he was a teenager. DHS rejected that claim which was premised on a particular reading of the law in effect at the time. Sharma petitioned the ...