The Fourth Circuit has granted a petition for review filed by a Guinean mother who was denied cancellation of removal after being granted withholding of removal to Guinea based on her fear that her daughters would face female genital mutilation there, holding that she was never given a fair opportunity to present evidence that removal to a third country would cause her daughters exceptional hardship.
The Court held that the immigration judge's order limiting briefing to the narrow legal question of whether withholding relief categorically barred cancellation left the petitioner no opportunity to develop the separate factual question of third-country hardship, and that the promised evidentiary hearing on that question never occurred. The Court vacated the BIA's order and remanded, over a dissent that would have found the procedural argument forfeited and any error harmless.
The full text of Keita v. Blanche can be found here: https://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/241226.P.pdf