Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1438746.html
Timestamp: 2019-08-22 08:15:33
Document Index: 750731078

Matched Legal Cases: ['§\u20021229', '§\u20021229', '§\u20021003', '§\u20021229', '§\u20021229', '§\u20021003', '§\u20021231', '§\u20021158', '§\u20021229', '§\u20021003', '§\u20021003']

Before MARSHA S. BERZON and SANDRA S. IKUTA, Circuit Judges, and JAMES K. SINGLETON, JR.,** Senior District Judge. Theodore Whitley Chandler, Sidley Austin, San Francisco, CA, for the petitioner. Adam M. Dinnell (argued) and Terri Scadron, United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Washington, DC, for the respondent.
The opinion filed December 13, 2007, slip op. 16371, 510 F.3d 1059, is amended as follows.
1. At slip op. 16387, footnote 14, 510 F.3d at 1066-67, replace the sentences that begin and end with .
Denials of motions to reopen are generally reviewed for abuse of discretion. INS v. Doherty, 502 U.S. 314, 323-24, 112 S.Ct. 719, 116 L.Ed.2d 823 (1992); INS v. Abudu, 485 U.S. 94, 104-05, 108 S.Ct. 904, 99 L.Ed.2d 90 (1988). This Court defers to the Board's exercise of discretion unless it acted arbitrarily, irrationally or contrary to law. Caruncho v. INS, 68 F.3d 356, 360 (9th Cir.1995); Lainez-Ortiz v. INS, 96 F.3d 393, 395 (9th Cir.1996). The Board's determination of purely legal questions is reviewed de novo except to the extent that deference is owed to its interpretation of the governing statutes and regulations. Rodriguez-Lariz v. INS, 282 F.3d 1218, 1222 (9th Cir.2002); Simeonov v. Ashcroft, 371 F.3d 532, 535 (9th Cir.2004). Factual findings are reviewed for substantial evidence. Sharma v. INS, 89 F.3d 545, 547(9th Cir.1996).
Toufighi's motion to reopen to apply for adjustment of status was properly denied regardless of whether the ten-year bar on discretionary relief for failing to voluntarily depart applies to him. If the ten-year bar under § 1229c(d)(1)(B) applies, it will not expire until 2012 and the motion here was not available to him. If § 1229c(d)(1)(B) does not apply, Toufighi was still bound by the usual ninety-day deadline for motions to reopen, which ran long before he applied for a change of status.7 See 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c)(2); 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(c)(7)(C)(I). The Board noted both grounds in its opinion. We need not determine whether the former ground is correct, because Toufighi's motion was rightly rejected on the latter ground, namely, it was barred by the usual ninetyday deadline.8
Alternatively, Toufighi argues that new and verified evidence of changed conditions within Iran supports his claim of a well-founded fear of persecution. This ground is not subject to the ninety-day limitation discussed above. See 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(c)(7)(C)(ii); 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c)(3)(ii). Nor does the ten-year bar apply, because it does not bar an alien from seeking relief under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3)(withholding of removal) or 8 U.S.C. § 1158 (asylum). 8 U.S.C. § 1229c(d)(1)(B). The Board was therefore permitted to consider Toufighi's changed circumstances claim filed well over ninety days after the original order became final.
We disagree. Words may not be interpreted in a vacuum. It is context that gives meaning to words. Given the IJ's qualifying remarks, we conclude that the Board reasonably interpreted the IJ's decision as an explicit or express rejection of Toufighi's claim to have converted to Christianity.12 On this record we find that the IJ did make an express adverse credibility determination as to Toufighi's claim that he converted to Christianity. See Rizal v. Gonzales, 442 F.3d 84, 89-90 (2d Cir.2006) (finding an express adverse credibility determination on a similar record). The IJ did far more than imply a negative credibility finding by concluding that the applicant failed to satisfy the burden of proof. The IJ explicitly stated, “The Court just would not believe that the respondent's claimed conversion is genuine in nature. The Court would find that the respondent's alleged conversion from Muslim to Christianity is basically as a vehicle for him to apply for political asylum in the United States.” Cf. Mansour v. Ashcroft, 390 F.3d 667, 671-72 (9th Cir.2004) (holding that an IJ's statements that he was “troubled by[ ] certain inconsistencies” and that the petitioner's credibility was “suspect” amounted only to “an implicit adverse credibility determination,” which the court “refused to recognize”); Kataria v. INS, 232 F.3d 1107, 1114 (9th Cir.2000) (holding that the Board did not make an adverse credibility finding when it “merely noted questions about [the petitioner's] claim and concluded that [the petitioner] failed to meet his burden of establishing asylum eligibility”).
Toufighi's reliance on this case is misplaced. Ma dealt with a motion for reconsideration of an earlier decision, not a motion to reopen. Ma, 361 F.3d at 558 n. 7. A motion to reconsider necessarily reaches the prior decision because it must “specify[ ] the errors of fact or law in the prior Board decision.” See 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(b)(1). In contrast, a motion to reopen based on changed conditions is focused on “new facts” showing changed conditions that now establish a prima facie case for asylum. See 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c)(1) and (c)(3)(ii); Bhasin, 423 F.3d at 984-86. While a motion for reconsideration necessarily brings up the earlier order to be reconsidered, a motion to reopen engages the earlier order only to the extent the relevant available facts have since changed. Id.
In this case, the Board concluded that the evidence produced by Toufighi with his motion to reopen, did not “contain[ ] prima facie evidence that the respondent would be directly affected by any changes noted therein.” Even assuming the newly available evidence presented by Toufighi demonstrated a general increase in persecution of apostates in Iran, Toufighi still failed to establish a prima facie case for eligibility because it had already been conclusively determined that he was not an apostate, and that Iranian officials would not impute this status to him because Toufighi would never inform them of apostasy which never took place.14 The IJ's conclusive findings on this point also make the new evidence regarding persecution of apostates immaterial.
The majority upholds the BIA because it also concludes that the IJ found that “the conversion was not genuine, and that [therefore] apostasy would not be imputed to Toufighi.” Maj. Op. at 997.
An imputed religious opinion is treated the same way, particularly in theocratic Iran where religion is politics. We have recognized that the Iranian government may persecute people for their “actually-held or perceived-to-be-held political or religious beliefs.” Fisher v. I.N.S., 79 F.3d 955, 962(9th Cir.1996) (en banc) (emphasis added); see also Abedini v. U.S. I.N.S., 971 F.2d 188, 192 (9th Cir.1992) (discussing the possibility of persecution if Iranian government would “impute a political or religious belief” to the petitioner) (emphasis added). Other circuits have also so held in the religion context. See Rizal v. Gonzales, 442 F.3d 84, 90 n. 7(2d Cir.2006) (“Indeed, even an individual who does not subscribe to a certain religion, but is nonetheless being persecuted on account of others' perception that he does, may well be able to establish a religious persecution claim under a theory of ‘imputed religion’ analogous to the ‘imputed political opinion’ theory ․”) (emphasis in original) 4 ; Mezvrishvili v. U.S. Attorney General, 467 F.3d 1292, 1296 (11th Cir.2006) (same); Ahmadshah v. Ashcroft, 396 F.3d 917, 920 n. 2 (8th Cir.2005) (holding that, in the case of a Muslim apostate applying for asylum from religious persecution in Afghanistan, “[e]ven if [petitioner] did not have a clear understanding of Christian doctrine, this is not relevant to his fear of persecution․ If [petitioner] had shown that Afghans would believe that he was an apostate, that is sufficient basis for fear of persecution under the law.”).
In short, the question is not what Toufighi believes but what Iran understands him to believe-or, more accurately, not to believe. It is thoroughly plausible that because he attends Christian services and belongs to a Christian church, Toufighi will be taken to have renounced Islam. Neither the BIA's nor the IJ's “opinion[s] ․ consider[ed] what could count as conversion in the eyes of an Iranian religious judge, which is the only thing that would count as far as the danger to [the petitioner] is concerned.” Bastanipour, 980 F.2d at 1132(emphasis in original). Even if his conversion is not “genuine,” he remains at risk. “Whether [the petitioner] believes the tenets of Christianity in his heart of hearts or, ․ is acting opportunistically (though at great risk to himself) in the hope of staving off deportation would not ․ matter to an Iranian religious judge.” Id.; cf. Al-Harbi, 242 F.3d at 890-94.5
The IJ's sincerity findings were therefore entirely unresponsive to the critical question before the BIA on Toufighi's religious asylum ground. For these reasons, the BIA's holding on the religious persecution/change of country circumstances question was unsupported. Because the majority, like the BIA, misreads the IJ as holding that Toufighi was not and is not a Christian, in any sense, it concludes that he is therefore “not an apostate” and so fails to recognize the BIA's error. Maj. Op. at 997.
10. The IJ expressed “deep concern” as to genuineness of conversion; “serious doubt” as to conversion; and found the alleged conversion was merely “a vehicle for him to apply for political asylum in the United States.” The IJ further stated that “[t]he Court just would not believe that the respondent's claimed conversion is genuine in nature.” See supra at 1060-61.
14. The dissent argues that neither the IJ nor the Board considered imputed group membership. Though he did not use the term “imputed,” the IJ addressed this concern, concluding that Toufighi would not be viewed as a Christian in Iran. The IJ noted that Toufighi had never been persecuted in Iran; had never practiced Christianity in Iran; had almost no ties to Christians in Iran; and would not communicate his alleged conversion upon return to Iran because it was merely a ruse to gain asylum. In light of the IJ's factual determinations that Toufighi was not a genuine convert to Christianity, was not an apostate, and would not be considered an apostate by the Iranian authorities, and given our lack of jurisdiction to review these factual determinations, we do not reach the separate question whether a petitioner could establish a well-founded fear of persecution based on evidence of apostasy, or evidence that the petitioner would be perceived as an apostate by Iranian officials, in a case where the petitioner failed to prove that the petitioner's conversion was genuine. Cf. Najafi v. INS, 104 F.3d 943, 949 (7th Cir.1997) (noting that evidence regarding the “sincerity of the alien's new religious commitment” can be relevant to an asylum claim based on apostasy, but is not dispositive).
4. Indeed, in Rizal the IJ found that the petitioner had “failed to persuade the Court of the genuineness of his professed Christian faith,” 442 F.3d at 88 (emphasis added), much as in this case. While that case was resolved on other grounds, Rizal endorsed a distinction between “genuine” faith and the imputed religious opinions that may put asylum seekers at risk and which threaten Toufighi here. Id. at 90 n.7.