The Third Circuit has had a flurry of published immigration opinions in recent weeks, and today brings two more, both government wins.

Saliba v. AG — immigration — affirmance — Greenberg

A citizen of Syria falsely claimed to be a citizen of Lebanon when applying for temporary US residency. The deception got him temporary status and later legal permanent residence, but it was caught when he applied for citizenship. The district court denied his petition challenging citizenship denial, and today the Third Circuit affirmed in a lucid and well-reasoned opinion that is two-spaces-after-the-period away from violating every rule of good typography.

Joining Greenberg were Ambro and Jordan. The case was decided without oral argument, which seems like a missed opportunity because losing counsel speaks six languages.

Koszelnik v. Secretary of Dep’t of Homeland Security — immigration — affirmance — Roth

Stop me if this sounds familiar: a citizen of Poland falsely answered a question on a visa application and as a result gained permanent residency, but the falsehood was later caught when he applied for U.S. citizenship. The district court ruled against him, and the Third Circuit today affirmed, noting in a footnote:

Two panels of this Court are filing opinion in Koszelnik v. Secretary, No. 14-4816, and Saliba v. Attorney General, No. 15-3769, on this day dealing with similar issues. Each opinion is a further precedent supporting the other opinion.

(Saliba had a subtantially identical footnote.)

Joining Roth were Fuentes and Krause. Arguing counsel were John Bleimaier of Princeton for the appellant and Neelam Ihsanullah (who I suspect is no longer a member of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild) for the government.

If someone approaches you today with this offer — “I will give you $10 if you successfully predict one published opinion for which the Third Circuit will not grant rehearing en banc, but if you lose you have to pay $1,000″ — consider taking a flier on today’s opinions.