Opinion ID: 2978513
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: Camara is a citizen of Guinea. He came to the United States in 1990, at the age of twentynine, on a temporary visa. In 1994, he filed for asylum, claiming that he feared persecution in Guinea because his stepfather was a former government minister who had been targeted by the regime then in power. On February 28, 2005, a Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) officer interviewed Camara and referred him to a removal hearing before an immigration judge (“IJ”). At his master calendar hearing in 2006, Camara conceded removability but sought asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). On February 27, 2007, he filed an updated asylum application, claiming that he feared persecution in Guinea because of his political activities on behalf of the Rally of the Guinean People (“RPG”) opposition party. The updated application also noted the government’s past targeting of his stepfather. At his merits hearing on March 7, 2007, Camara testified that his stepfather was the Guinean Information Minister until 1984, when a coup brought Lansana Conté to power and Camara’s family fled to the Ivory Coast. Camara had stated in his initial asylum application that the Conté government wished to kill his entire family and, in his 2007 application, that his family had fled because his stepfather was suspected of planning a coup. At his hearing, Camara stated that he returned to Guinea a year after his family had fled, but did not fear persecution at that point because the government had targeted only his stepfather. Camara also testified that he joined the RPG upon returning to Guinea, regularly attending party meetings and working to recruit high school and university students. According to him, the police often interrupted these meetings, threatening the members and the owner of the building where the meetings occurred. The police did not arrest anyone at the meetings Camara attended, but he stated that at other times several party members were arrested, including an individual who later was granted refugee status in the United States and now lives in Ohio. In April 1990, Camara received a “convocation” requiring that he report to the police; fearing arrest, he briefly went into hiding before obtaining a visa for travel to the United States. He left Guinea in 1990 without government interference. Camara testified that he became a member of the RPG in the United States in 1992 and since has remained active in the party, sending money to RPG members in Guinea, occasionally receiving RPG newsletters, and on at least one occasion traveling to New York for a party meeting. On cross-examination at his hearing, Camara conceded that he had presented no evidence to support his claims regarding his stepfather’s identity or former government position. He also could not explain why his first asylum application had focused solely on his stepfather’s position and not mentioned Camara’s own political activities with the RPG. The Government pointed out that Camara’s 2007 application stated that he had joined the RPG in 1997, while he stated in his asylum interview that he had joined in 1999. Camara explained that the party was evolving during this time and argued that this evolution accounted for the inconsistency. The Government also noted that, while Camara’s 2007 application did not mention his receiving education above the high school level, he had testified to having received a university degree. Camara explained that the error was a result of his poor English-language ability, his refusing an interpreter and testifying in English notwithstanding. The Government also elicited testimony that Camara had a cousin in Columbus, whom he did not ask to appear on his behalf, and that he either had not asked the RPG member who lived in Ohio to appear on his behalf or that the individual had been unwilling to do so. At the conclusion of the merits hearing, the IJ issued an oral decision denying Camara’s application but granting him voluntary departure. The IJ found that Camara’s story was not credible, pointing to several inconsistencies, including Camara’s failure to mention his political activities in his initial application and the “more minor” inconsistency regarding his level of education. The IJ also found it reasonable to expect Camara to have provided evidence corroborating the identity of his stepfather and his own involvement with the RPG in Guinea, but that Camara had not done so. The IJ took into consideration the “convocation” summoning Camara to the police department, but gave the document minimal weight because it was not translated into English and gave no indication (as far as the IJ could determine) that it was related to Camara’s political activities. The IJ found, in any case, that the convocation did not overcome Camara’s lack of credibility. The IJ held that, even were he to accept Camara’s testimony, Camara had not demonstrated past persecution or a well-founded fear of future persecution. The IJ reasoned that the alleged threats by Guinean police did not amount to past persecution and that Camara’s alleged involvement with the RPG in Guinea and subsequent involvement with the party in the United States¯which the IJ credited but found to be minimal¯were insufficient to support an objectively reasonable fear of future persecution. In addition, the IJ held that the application was time-barred because it was not filed until four years after Camara arrived in the United States. Finally, the IJ stated that he would be disinclined to grant the application as a matter of discretion, even were it not time-barred, because of Camara’s prior conviction for soliciting prostitution. Camara appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), which dismissed his appeal on September 26, 2008. The BIA concluded that the IJ had erred in finding that Camara’s application was time-barred, but held that this error was harmless because the IJ appropriately had found that Camara failed to meet his burden of proof based on credibility concerns and lack of corroboration. Camara then filed a timely petition for review of the BIA’s decision with this court. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a).