The Fourth Circuit has extended a stay preventing the removal of a self-represented noncitizen detainee who said his "mental condition" prevented him from fully arguing his case to an immigration judge, finding that the full administrative record is needed.

A divided three-judge panel noted Wednesday that the petitioner, Cheikhany Sidelemine, and the federal government have "competing versions" of what took place at a February 2025 hearing before the immigration judge who subsequently ordered his removal. The Board of Immigration Appeals later found that Sidelemine was competent based on a review of the hearing transcript, but U.S. Circuit Judge Nicole G. Berner wrote for the court that it cannot determine which version is more accurate without examining the hearing transcript, too.

"The judicial responsibility of careful and individualized review of each matter that comes before us is particularly important in cases such as this one," Judge Berner wrote in Wednesday's decision. "Sidelemine is detained and unrepresented by counsel. He alleges that he would face torture and potentially death were he to be removed to his home country."

Given that the government has a 40-day window to file the administrative record under the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, the panel majority held in turn that the temporary administrative stay of Sidelemine's removal must be extended until 10 days following submission of the record.

"This modest extension is necessary to 'preserve the court's ability to make a considered decision on the motion,'" Judge Berner wrote, citing a standing order of the appeals court allowing for a 14-day stay of removal in immigration cases upon the initial filing of such a motion.

Sidelemine filed his petition and motion for a stay pending appeal on Oct. 15. The stay ruling follows a Virginia federal district court's denial of his habeas petition in May, after he had argued that he had been held in immigration detention too long without a bond hearing. But the district court found that Sidelemine, a citizen of Mauritania, already had a discretionary bond hearing, according to court filings.

In her dissent Wednesday, U.S. Circuit Judge Allison Jones Rushing said Sidelemine didn't make a strong showing that he would succeed on the merits, demonstrate irreparable injury or establish that a stay would serve the public interest, pointing to stay factors outlined in the U.S. Supreme Court's 2009 ruling in Nken v. Holder.

The appeals court has "everything we need to rule on the stay motion," Judge Rushing said. Sidelemine says that he was affected by trauma, stress and a failure to take his medicine on the day of the removal hearing and that he will explain further in his forthcoming merits brief, she highlighted. However, the BIA's own written decision shows that it "explicitly addressed all of these claims about petitioner's mental condition on the day of the hearing before concluding that he was competent to withdraw his applications for relief from removal, which he did," she noted.

"If petitioner believes this court needs materials he currently cannot provide, he can request an extension," she said. "But neither petitioner nor the government has asked to extend the administrative stay or suggested that we lack any information necessary to rule on the stay motion now."

Judge Rushing added that Wednesday's sua sponte stay extension is part of a broader trend of stay extensions by Fourth Circuit panels this year, even though nothing had changed about the automatic 14-day stay, the 40-day deadline to file the administrative record or the standard for granting a stay.

"Whatever is behind this recent spate of extensions, the fact remains that this court has for many years been capable of expeditiously ruling on stay motions without the administrative record and there is no reason we cannot continue to do so," Judge Rushing said.

Representatives for the federal government did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. Contact information for Sidelemine was not immediately available.

U.S. Circuit Judges Nicole G. Berner, Albert Diaz and Allison Jones Rushing sat on the panel for the Fourth Circuit.

Sidelemine is self-represented.

The federal government is represented by Brett A. Shumate, Zachary S. Hughbanks and Andrew B. Insenga of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The case is Sidelemine v. Blanche, case number 26-2467, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

--Editing by Rich Mills.