The Third Circuit denied a petition to review an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals that dismissed an appeal of a final order of removal holding that the petitioner is inadmissible to the United States. The petitioner, a citizen of Nigeria, was admitted to the United States in 1997 on a tourist visa, which he overstayed. Later, he was granted advance parole, left the United States, returned in November 2006, and was paroled into the country. The parole was valid until November 2007. The petitioner overstayed the parole, and, in 2011, the Department of Homeland Security served him with a Notice to Appear, charging that he was inadmissible. The Immigration Judge held that the petitioner was inadmissible and ordered him removed. The petitioner raised one issue on appeal: whether he should have been charged as removable, not inadmissible. The Court held that, when the petitioner entered the U.S. in 2006, he was not admitted under his long-expired visa—so his presence here could not be an overstay of that visa. Instead, he re-entered with no legal status more significant than a parolee’s; he is simply a paroled arriving alien. Relying on Second Circuit precedent, the Court rejected the petitioner’s argument.
