The Sixth Circuit has held that the thirty-day deadline to appeal an Immigration Judge’s decision to the BIA is not jurisdictional and may be equitably tolled. The petitioner, a Guinean woman with sickle-cell disease, sought tolling after missing the BIA appeal deadline following hospitalizations and a delay in retaining new counsel.
The Court nonetheless denied the petition for review. It held that the BIA did not abuse its discretion in finding that the petitioner failed to show due diligence throughout the full delay, including the period after her hospitalizations and the delay after she retained counsel. The Court left open the exact deferential standard of review for equitable tolling determinations.
The full text of Baro v. Blanche can be found here: https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/26a0173p-06.pdf