The Board of Immigration Appeals has held that an asylum applicant who returns to the country of claimed persecution under advance parole is presumed to have abandoned the application under 8 C.F.R. § 1208.8(b), and that the abandonment extends to the entire application, including withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture. The presumption can be rebutted only by compelling reasons for the return.
The Board further held that deferral of removal under 8 C.F.R. § 1208.17(a) is unavailable after abandonment, because it requires a mandatory denial of withholding, and that the respondent bore the burden on a mandatory bar, which turns on the record rather than counsel's argument. It rejected a due process claim based on late and unsigned service of DHS's closing argument for lack of prejudice, affirmed the denial of CAT protection on the merits in the alternative, and denied a motion to remand because the new country conditions evidence did not bear on abandonment. The appeal was dismissed.
The full text of Matter of M-R-I- can be found here: https://www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1464646/dl?inline