The Ninth Circuit has granted in part a petition for review filed by a Mexican man whose attorney's written pleading admitted that he entered the country without inspection, holding that the agency abused its discretion by refusing to let him testify that the admission was factually incorrect before denying his motion to amend the pleading.
The Court held that under BIA and circuit precedent, a noncitizen may withdraw a formal attorney admission by proving it untrue, and that the immigration judge's summary denial of the motion to amend, without allowing any testimony on the point, deprived the petitioner of a fair opportunity to make that showing. The Court also held the BIA impermissibly usurped the immigration judge's factfinding role by independently concluding, based on a cold record, that the petitioner's account conflicted with other evidence, and remanded for the immigration judge to hear live testimony and resolve the credibility question in the first instance.
The full text of Urias-Gaxiola v. Blanche can be found here: https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2026/09/02/22-1474.pdf