Source: http://ca10.washburnlaw.edu/cases/2004/08/04-9507.htm
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Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 208', '§ 1101', '§ 1158', '§ 208', '§ 1231', '§ 1231', '§ 208', '§ 1231', '§ 208', '§ 208', '§ 1231', '§ 208', '§ 2242', '§ 208']

04-9507 -- Elzour v. Ashcroft -- 08/17/2004
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MAHMOUD SHEIK ELZOUR,
No. 04-9507
Petition for Review of a Decision of the
(BIA No. A78-602-705)
William Michael Sharma-Crawford, Overland Park, Kansas, for Petitioner.
John M. McAdams, Jr., United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Office of Immigration Litigation, Washington, D.C. (Peter D. Keisler, Assistant Attorney General, Washington, D.C., andLinda S. Wernery, United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Office of Immigration Litigation, Washington, D.C., with him on the brief) for Respondent.
Before EBEL,HENRY and HARTZ, Circuit Judges.
The Immigration Judge ("IJ") denied Petitioner's application for asylum on the sole ground that Petitioner had firmly resettled in Canada prior to entering this country. He denied Petitioner's's application for restriction on removal because he found Petitioner's tale of persecution implausible. The IJ then ordered Petitioner removed to Canada, or, in the alternative, to Syria. The Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA") affirmed without opinion.
Within days of his arrival in Canada in June 1996, Petitioner applied for asylum. Canadian authorities sent him notices to appear regarding his asylum claim in February and April 1998, but Petitioner did not receive them and he therefore failed to attend a mandatory hearing. Consequently, Canada deemed his asylum claim abandoned and apparently ordered Petitioner to be deported to Syria.(1)
In late 1999 or early 2000, Petitioner learned that his asylum application had been deemed abandoned. Fearing deportation, he fled for the United States on April 25, 2000.(2)
Other human rights reports in the administrative record show that a significant percentage of Syria's political detainees had been arrested for known or suspected affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood. A 1992 Human Rights Watch report stated that about 75 percent of the political detainees at that time were suspected of having an affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood. Another Human Rights Watch report, discussing Tadmor Prison,(3) noted that "[a]mong those arbitrarily arrested ... in the early 1980s were large numbers of young men, including teenagers, who were relatives, friends or acquaintances of suspected or known Muslim Brothers, or individuals whose names were elicited when suspects were tortured during interrogation."(4)
Next, the IJ denied his application for restriction on removal because he found that Petitioner was not a credible witness.(5) The IJ's adverse credibility finding was based solely on his conclusion that Petitioner's story was implausible. More specifically, the IJ found the following aspects of Petitioner's story unworthy of belief: (1) that Syria would arrest a member of the military in the manner Petitioner described; (2) that Syria would be interested in Petitioner more than a year after the 1982 Hamah uprising; (3) that Syria would arrest Petitioner even though neither he nor his brother were supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood; (4) that Petitioner was detained arbitrarily for the length of time he claims; and (5) that Petitioner was compensated by the Syrian military after his first release from prison. The IJ did not rely on Petitioner's demeanor but rather simply referred to the above factors to support his conclusion that parts of Petitioner's story were implausible.
An alien who fears persecution if removed from the United States has two possible avenues of relief: asylum and restriction on removal. See Tsevegmid v. Ashcroft, 336 F.3d 1231, 1234 (10th Cir. 2003). Asylum generally permits the alien to remain in the United States, whereas restriction on removal forbids removal to the country where persecution is likely to occur. See id.; Wiransane v. Ashcroft, 366 F.3d 889, 893 (10th Cir. 2004).
"An alien who has been granted asylum may not be deported or removed unless his or her asylum status is terminated." 8 C.F.R. § 208.22. To be eligible for asylum, an alien must be a "refugee," meaning that he or she must generally be outside his or her country of nationality and "unable or unwilling to return to ... that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion." 8 U.S.C. §§ 1101(a)(42)(A), 1158(b)(1).(6) As a general matter, once refugee status is established, whether to grant or deny an asylum application is within the discretion of the Attorney General. INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 421, 428 n.5 (1987) ("[T]he Attorney General is not required to grant asylum to everyone who meets the definition of refugee.") (emphasis in original).
However, some categories of aliens are, by statute, ineligible to receive asylum even if they fall within the definition of a refugee. As relevant to our case, asylum is not available if the alien was firmly resettled in another country prior to arriving in the United States. 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b)(2)(A)(vi). Applicable regulations explain that, with exceptions not relevant in the instant case, an alien is considered to be firmly resettled in a third country when "prior to arrival in the United States, he or she entered into another country with, or while in that country received, an offer of permanent resident status, citizenship, or some other type of permanent resettlement." 8 C.F.R. § 208.15.(7)
Generally speaking, an alien may not be removed to a particular country if he or she can establish a clear probability of persecution in that country on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. See 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3)(A); INS v. Stevic, 467 U.S. 407, 429-30 (1984); Woldemeskel v. INS, 257 F.3d 1185, 1193 (10th Cir. 2001). This test requires the alien to show that such persecution is more likely than not. Stevic, 467 U.S. at 429-30; Woldemeskel, 257 F.3d at 1193. It is therefore "more demanding than the 'well-founded fear' standard applicable to an asylum claim." Tsevegmid, 336 F.3d at 1234.
The statutory provision governing restriction on removal also contains a different set of exceptions than does the asylum statute. Significantly, firm resettlement in a third country is not a bar to restriction on removal to the country where persecution is likely. See 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3)(B); Salazar v. Ashcroft, 359 F.3d 45, 52 (1st Cir. 2004) ("Although firm resettlement is ... a bar to the grant of asylum, we have found no statute or regulation that bars the relief of withholding of [removal] on the basis of firm resettlement."). Additionally, unlike asylum, the decision to grant restriction on removal is mandatory once the statutory criteria are satisfied. Woldemeskel, 257 F.3d at 1193.
The Convention Against Torture provides another basis for restricting removal to a particular country.(8) Pursuant to this treaty, an alien is entitled not to be removed to a country if he or she can show that it is more likely than not that he or she would be tortured if removed to that country. 8 C.F.R. §§ 208.16(c)(2), (4). This protection is narrower than restriction on removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1231 in some respects, but broader in others. See Kamalthas v. INS, 251 F.3d 1279, 1283 (9th Cir. 2001). The alien must show that the persecution at issue would be so severe as to rise to the level of torture, but he or she need not show that it would be on account of a protected classification. See id.
Because the BIA summarily affirmed the IJ's decision without opinion, we review the IJ's order as the final agency determination. Sviridov v. Ashcroft, 358 F.3d 722, 727 (10th Cir. 2004). We consider any legal questions de novo, and we review the agency's findings of fact under the substantial evidence standard. Under that test, our duty is to guarantee that factual determinations are supported by reasonable, substantial and probative evidence considering the record as a whole. See id.; Kapcia v. INS, 944 F.2d 702, 705 (10th Cir. 1991).(9)
The IJ's credibility determinations, like other findings of fact, are subject to the substantial evidence test. See Cordero-Trejo v. INS, 40 F.3d 482, 487 (1st Cir. 1994); Abdulrahman v. Ashcroft, 330 F.3d 587, 597 (3d Cir. 2003); Osorio v. INS, 99 F.3d 928, 931 (9th Cir. 1996). In particular, we have held that in order to determine that an alien is not a credible witness, the IJ must give "specific, cogent reasons" for disbelieving his or her testimony. Sviridov, 358 F.3d at 727.
Finally, our review is confined to the reasoning given by the IJ, and we will not independently search the record for alternative bases to affirm. See SEC v. Chenery Corp., 318 U.S. 80, 95 (1943); Secaida-Rosales v. INS, 331 F.3d 297, 305 (2d Cir. 2003). If an agency "decides a case on a ground believed by an appellate court to be wrong, the case has to be remanded to the agency." See Palavra v. INS, 287 F.3d 690, 693 (8th Cir. 2002). Thus, in the instant case, our review of Petitioner's asylum application is limited to the IJ's firm resettlement determination, and our review of his restriction of removal application is limited to whether the IJ's adverse credibility determination is sustainable.
The firm resettlement bar generally mandates a denial of asylum if a third country in which an alien has resided offers him or her permanent resettlement before the alien enters the United States. See Andriasian v. INS, 180 F.3d 1033, 1043 (9th Cir. 1999). 8 C.F.R. § 208.15 "explicitly centers the firm resettlement analysis on the question whether a third country issued to the alien an offer of some type of official status permitting the alien to reside in that country on a permanent basis." Abdille v. Ashcroft, 242 F.3d 477, 485 (3d Cir. 2001). If a third country has simply allowed the alien to reside there temporarily, the firm resettlement bar does not apply. See Cheo v. INS, 162 F.3d 1227, 1230 (9th Cir. 1998) ("This does not mean that as soon as a person has come to rest at a country other than the country of danger, he cannot get asylum in the United States. Another country may have allowed only a temporary and not a permanent refuge.").
We have recognized that an offer of permanent resettlement may be proven by either direct or circumstantial evidence. See Abdalla v. INS, 43 F.3d 1397, 1399-1400 (10th Cir. 1994). Specifically, when an alien enjoys a lengthy undisturbed stay in a third country, "in the absence of evidence to the contrary, it would be a reasonable inference from the duration that [the third country] allowed the [alien] to stay indefinitely." See Cheo, 162 F.3d at 1229; see also Abdille, 242 F.3d at 487 ("[I]f direct evidence of an offer is unobtainable, such non-offer-based elements can serve as a surrogate for direct evidence of a formal offer of some type of permanent resettlement, if they rise to a sufficient level of clarity and force."). In Abdalla, for example, evidence that an alien lived for 20 years in the United Arab Emirates and possessed a "'residence' visa/permit" was sufficient to suggest permanent resettlement in the absence of contrary evidence. 43 F.3d at 1399; see also Cheo, 162 F.3d at 1229 ("Three years of peaceful residence ... [is] sufficient to support an inference of permanent resettlement in the absence of evidence to the contrary.").(10)
However, in this case, Petitioner's stay of nearly four years in Canada does not support an inference that he had received some sort of permanent refuge there. On the contrary, the record contains undisputed evidence that Canada both refused to grant Petitioner asylum and refused to grant him permanent status based on his marriage to a Canadian national. Instead, Canada ordered Petitioner deported to Syria. These facts negate any inference that could otherwise be drawn from the length of Petitioner's stay in Canada that he had found permanent refuge there. Cf. Abdalla, 43 F.3d at 1399 (inferring firm resettlement from an "extended, officially sanctioned stay"); Cheo, 162 F.3d at 1229 (inferring firm resettlement from a "three year undisturbed stay"); Andriasian, 180 F.3d at 1043 (finding no firm resettlement because "[t]here is no evidence in the record that [petitioner] was offered resettlement by Armenia ­ quite the opposite; he was told to go back to Azerbaijan").
There remains the question of whether Petitioner's ability to apply for asylum in Canada was itself an "offer of ... permanent resettlement" which Petitioner declined by failing to appear at a mandatory hearing. The firm resettlement bar looks to whether permanent refuge was offered, not whether permanent status was ultimately obtained. Refugees may not flee to the United States and receive asylum after having unilaterally rejected safe haven in other nations in which they established significant ties along the way. See 8 C.F.R. § 208.15; Abdalla, 43 F.3d at 1400 (an alien may not "bootstrap[] an asylum claim simply by unilaterally severing his existing ties to a third country"); Cheo, 162 F.3d at 1230 ("A persecuting regime does not entitle its victims to choose one country of asylum over another which first afforded permanent refuge.").
As noted above, the IJ refused to restrict removal to Syria because he found Petitioner's account of persecution there implausible.(11) We will uphold an IJ's adverse credibility determination so long as the IJ provides "specific, cogent reasons" for disbelieving the witness' testimony. Sviridov v. Ashcroft, 358 F.3d 722, 727 (10th Cir. 2004). This standard of review is a deferential one, but we do not blindly accept an IJ's determination that an alien seeking asylum or restriction on removal is not credible. Osorio v. INS, 99 F.3d 928, 931 (9th Cir. 1996); see also Aguilera-Cota v. INS, 914 F.2d 1375, 1381 (9th Cir. 1990) ("The fact that an IJ considers a petitioner not to be credible constitutes the beginning not the end of our inquiry.").
An IJ's adverse credibility determination may appropriately be based upon such factors as inconsistencies in the witness' testimony, lack of sufficient detail, or implausibility. See Capric v. Ashcroft, 355 F.3d 1075, 1085 (7th Cir. 2004); Dia v. Ashcroft, 353 F.3d 228, 249 (3d Cir. 2003) (en banc). Additionally, an IJ may find a witness not to be credible because of his or her testimonial demeanor. See Mendoza Manimbao v. Ashcroft, 329 F.3d 655, 662 (9th Cir. 2003) ("[W]e grant special deference to the IJ's eyewitness observations regarding demeanor evidence.") In our case, the IJ did not fault Petitioner's testimony for containing inconsistencies or lacking detail, nor did he make any findings regarding Petitioner's demeanor. Rather, the IJ's adverse credibility finding was based solely on his conclusion that Petitioner's account of persecution was implausible.
An IJ's finding that an applicant's testimony is implausible may not be based upon speculation, conjecture, or unsupported personal opinion. See Wiransane v. Ashcroft, 366 F.3d 889, 898 (10th Cir. 2004) ("Adverse credibility determinations based on speculation or conjecture are reversible.") (quotation and alterations omitted); see also Vera-Villegas v. INS, 330 F.3d 1222, 1231 (9th Cir. 2003) ("[C]onjecture is not a substitute for substantial evidence.") (quotation omitted). Accordingly, when an IJ finds that the alleged behavior of a foreign government is implausible, that conclusion must be supported by substantial evidence in the record. See Dia, 353 F.3d at 249 ("Where an IJ bases an adverse credibility determination in part on 'implausibility,' ... such a conclusion will be properly grounded in the record only if it is made against the background of general country conditions."); El Moraghy v. Ashcroft, 331 F.3d 195, 205 (1st Cir. 2003) ("While we defer to the IJ on credibility questions, that deference is expressly conditioned on support in the record."). Under such circumstances, it would be error for the IJ to fail to explain the basis in evidence for his or her credibility finding. See El Moraghy, 331 F.3d at 205 (quoted with approval in Wiransane, 366 F.3d at 898).
In other words, the IJ may not rest an adverse credibility determination on "his own unsupported opinion as to how an authoritarian government operates." Gao v. Ashcroft, 299 F.3d 266, 278 (3d Cir. 2002); see also Cordero-Trejo v. INS, 40 F.3d 482, 490 (1st Cir. 1994) (implausibility finding may not be "based upon 'expectations' without support in the record"); Abdulrahman v. Ashcroft, 330 F.3d 587, 598 (3d Cir. 2003) ("[T]he IJ fell well short of what we are entitled to expect from judicial officers ­ her commentary was not confined to the evidence in the record and smacked of impermissible conjecture"); Mosa v. Rogers, 89 F.3d 601, 604-05 (9th Cir. 1996) (holding that the IJ improperly surmised, without record support, that the Afghan army would not be so desperate as to parachute a suspected mujahidin sympathizer into mujahidin territory after only one week of training) (superceded by statute on other grounds).
We emphasize that "we are not finding [Petitioner] credible. Rather, we are concluding ... that because of the lack of substantial evidence to support the adverse credibility determination, we will remand in order for the agency to further explain or supplement the record." Cf. Dia, 353 F.3d at 260; INS v. Ventura, 537 U.S. 12, 16 (2002) ("[T]he law entrusts the agency to make the ... decision here in question. In such circumstances a judicial judgment cannot be made to do service for an administrative judgment.") (citations omitted).
1. Our record does not contain a copy of the Canadian deportation order. However, in its brief to this Court the government relates that "Elzour missed his Canadian asylum hearing and was ordered deported to Syria."
2. Unbeknownst to Petitioner, Canadian officials decided to reopen his asylum case about the time he left the country. However, Canadian authorities ultimately determined that Petitioner had again abandoned his asylum claim, having failed to appear at a hearing in February 2001.
3. Petitioner does not allege that he was held in Tadmor Prison.
4. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, terrorist groups associated with a faction of the Muslim Brotherhood were involved in numerous assassinations of Syrian government officials. The Muslim Brotherhood also staged an uprising against the Syrian government in Hamah in February 1982.
5. Restriction on removal was known as "withholding of removal" prior to the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. See Wiransane v. Ashcroft, 366 F.3d 889, 892 n.1 (10th Cir. 2004). We use the newer terminology "restriction on removal" throughout this opinion. For simplicity, as the IJ denied Petitioner's applications under 8 U.S.C. § 1231 and the Convention Against Torture on the same ground, we will refer to these two potential bases for relief collectively as Petitioner's application for restriction on removal.
6. Other circuits have held that persecution on account of political opinion can include persecution based on imputed political opinion. See Ravindran v. INS, 976 F.2d 754, 760 (1st Cir. 1992) ("An imputed political opinion, whether correctly or incorrectly attributed, may constitute a reason for political persecution within the meaning of the Act."); Aguilera-Cota v. INS, 914 F.2d 1375, 1379 (9th Cir. 1990) ("If the persecutor thinks the person guilty of a political opinion, then the person is at risk.") (quotation omitted).
7. An alien will not be considered "firmly resettled," even upon receiving some sort of offer of permanent resettlement, if he or she establishes (1) that the alien's entry into the third country was a necessary consequence of his or her flight from persecution, the alien stayed there only so long as necessary to arrange onward travel, and he or she established no significant ties there, or (2) that the conditions in the third country were so substantially and consciously restricted that the alien was not in fact resettled there. See 8 C.F.R. § 208.15.
8. The Convention Against Torture is formally referred to as The United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Dec. 10, 1984, 1465 U.N.T.S. 85. The United States implemented the Convention Against Torture through the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, Pub. L. No. 105-277, § 2242, 112 Stat. 2681 (1998). See Batalova v. Ashcroft, 355 F.3d 1246, 1248 n.2 (10th Cir. 2004).
9. Desta v. Ashcroft, 329 F.3d 1179, 1181, 1187 (10th Cir. 2003), suggests that we review the firm resettlement question for abuse of discretion. Most other circuits review this question for substantial evidence. See Salazar, 359 F.3d at 50 (1st Cir.); Abdille v. Ashcroft, 242 F.3d 477, 483 (3d Cir. 2001); Mussie v. INS, 172 F.3d 329, 331 (4th Cir. 1999). The cases we cited in Desta referred to the Attorney General's discretionary power to grant asylum relief, not to mandatory statutory bars such as firm resettlement. See Kapcia, 944 F.2d at 708; Woldemeskel, 257 F.3d at 1189. Moreover, both before and after Desta, we have held generally (albeit outside the firm resettlement context) that we review IJ and BIA factfinding for substantial evidence. See, e.g., Sviridov, 358 F.3d at 727; Lockett v. INS, 245 F.3d 1126, 1128 (10th Cir. 2001). In any event, in this case our conclusion is unaffected by the standard of review. Committing a legal error or making a factual finding that is not supported by substantial record evidence is necessarily an abuse of discretion.
10. Once the government presents evidence indicating the alien was firmly resettled, the burden shifts to the alien to show that this mandatory bar does not apply. See Abdalla, 43 F.3d at 1399; Abdille, 242 F.3d at 491, 491 n.12.
11. The burden of proof is on the applicant to show eligibility for restriction on removal, although his or her testimony alone, if credible, may be enough to satisfy this burden. See 8 C.F.R. §§ 208.16(b), 208.16(c)(2).
Updated: August 18, 2004.
URL: http://ca10.washburnlaw.edu/cases/2004/08/04-9507.htm.