CA1: First abdicates its role in reviewing immigration cases

Rabbat v. Mukasey, No. 08-1330 (9/25/08) (unpublished).  The petitioner is a Syrian Christian.  The First says that because the asylum claim was filed late, it lacks jurisdiction to review it. But, it can review the withholding claim.  The First then uses the same boilerplate found in the case below (including calling the BIA a court) and denies the petition for review without taking the matter seriously.

For some reason, it seems that some inter-judge politics on the First has mandated that the First no longer take a number of immigration appeals seriously. This shows a lack of attention to detail.