Taveras Martinez v. Blanche

── Taveras Martinez v. Blanche ── Court: Court of Appeals for the First Circuit Date: April 17, 2026 Category: General United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit No. 24-1741 JOHAN JOSE TAVERAS MARTĺNEZ, Petitioner, v. TODD BLANCHE, Acting Attorney General,* Respondent. ON PETITION FOR REVIEW OF AN ORDER OF THE BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS Before Gelpí, Thompson, and Montecalvo, Circuit Judges. Ivan E. Mercado, with whom Mercado & Renegel were on brief, for petitioner. Deitz P. Lefort, Trial Attorney, Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, with whom John S. Hogan, Assistant Director, Office of Immigration Litigation, and Brian Boynton, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice, were on brief, for respondent. *Pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 43(c)(2), Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is automatically substituted for former Attorney General Pamela J. Bondi. April 17, 2026  GELPÍ, Circuit Judge. Johan Jose Taveras Martínez1 ("Petitioner" or "Mr. Taveras Martínez") appeals the Board of Immigration Appeals's (BIA) reversal of his adjustment of status. He claims that the BIA erred in reversing his adjustment of status because it impermissibly relied on a fact not included in the record in front of the Immigration Judge (IJ). The government ("Respondent" or the "Government") asserts that the BIA did not engage in impermissible factfinding and instead simply reweighed the evidence before the IJ de novo and found against Petitioner. For the following reasons, we find Petitioner's claim persuasive and reverse and remand the case to the BIA. I. BACKGROUND A. Facts Mr. Taveras Martínez, a thirty-three-year-old native and citizen of Venezuela, first arrived in the United States in 2001 with his mother, Santa Martínez. Mr. Taveras Martínez graduated from a vocational high school in Roxbury, Massachusetts, where he met his now-wife, Jennifer Ríos ("Ms. Ríos"), a United States citizen. The two married in the Dominican Republic in 2008. After their nuptials, they parted ways; Mr. Taveras Martínez returned to Venezuela and Ms. Ríos returned to the United States. In 2009, 1 We include accent marks in the spelling of the parties' names where appropriate, even if the parties did not do so themselves. - 3 - Ms. Ríos petitioned for an adjustment of her husband's immigration status but later withdrew the application. On October 29, 2014, Mr. Taveras Martínez reentered the United States on a B1 visa2 which permitted his lawful stay until August 28, 2015. He has since remained in the United States. Nearly two years after his return, Mr. Taveras Martínez paid $400 to purchase a false Social Security card and birth certificate under the identity of Jose González, a United States citizen from Puerto Rico.3 He later used these identification documents to obtain a driver's license under the name Jose González. Mr. Taveras Martínez testified that he obtained the documents "to work," and that he used these false documents to gain employment at a carwash, restaurant, and as a DoorDash delivery driver. 2[B1] non-immigrant visas are designed to permit a short term stay (usually between 30 and 60 days) for business or tourist purposes. To obtain a [B1] visa, an applicant must establish that he or she has a legitimate reason for travel, that the stay is temporary in nature, that the applicant has sufficient means to finance the proposed trip, and that the applicant has sufficient business or family ties in the home country to assure the United States Consular Officer o