In an interesting procedural case, the petitioner was ordered removed in the Ninth Circuit, but later had her order reinstated in the Eleventh Circuit after illegally re-entering the United States. An Immigration Judge in the Eleventh Circuit denied her application for withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture based on the persecution she suffered as a transgender woman in Mexico. The Board of Immigration Appeals (Board) affirmed, and the petitioner appealed the Board's decision to the Ninth Circuit. Though the Ninth Circuit acknowledged that venue was proper in the Eleventh Circuit, it also held that improper venue did not strip its jurisdiction to hear the case. It further determined that the interests of justice were not served by transferring the appeal to the Eleventh Circuit, as it had already been fully briefed at the Ninth Circuit and the petitioner may have suffered legitimate confusion when she filed her petition for review in the Ninth Circuit, given that her initial asylum claim was denied in the Ninth Circuit and her in absentia order was issued in the Ninth Circuit.
The full text of Bibiano v. Lynch can be found here:
http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2016/08/19/12-71735.pdf