Case Explained: KADIATOU BABILA KEITA v. TODD BLANCHE, Acting Attorney General

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-08-04 The fourth-circuit granted Kadiatou Babila Keita’s petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ denial of her application for cancellation of removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b)(1), vacated the Board’s order, and remanded the case for further proceedings. The court held that the immigration judge violated the statutory requirement to provide a “full and fair hearing” under 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(b)(4)(B) by denying Keita’s cancellation application without allowing her to present evidence or argument regarding the exceptional hardship her United States citizen children would suffer if she were removed to a country other than Guinea. Although the immigration judge had granted Keita withholding of removal to Guinea, which precluded removal to that specific country, he failed to hold a promised evidentiary hearing to consider whether third-country removal would result in the requisite hardship, instead relying on briefing limited to the legal question of whether withholding relief categorically barred cancellation eligibility. The court dismissed as moot Keita’s separate petition for review of the Board’s denial of her motion for reconsideration. Do It For The Case Law is a news reporting service. Nothing in this episode constitutes legal advice.