Opinion ID: 4538683
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Ba’s Removal Proceedings

Text: On October 23, 2000, Ba testified in support of his applications for relief to the following information.1 He was born into slavery and his entire family was in the service of a master. A.R. at 705 (Asylum Hr’g Tr. at 13). His family lived in “the regional city of Kaédi,” id. at 726, in a separate house owned by the master, id. at 706. At the hearing, Ba identified his master by name and described him as a “shepherd” who also owned a boutique. Id. at 705–06. Ba would lead his master’s animals to the pasture, and afterwards he would wait on clients in the boutique, id. at 706, in which he would sell and serve tea, id. at 722. The master provided “nothing” in compensation for Ba’s labor, and Ba was permitted to eat only after the master had finished eating. Id. at 707. Ba attended religious school from 1968 to 1970, id. at 723, and high school from 1970 to 1976, until his master wanted him to stop, id. at 724. Ba’s sister eventually left the family by way of marriage to the slave of another family, which Ba’s master arranged. Id. at 707. 1 Ba testified in French through an official interpreter. A.R. at 698 (Asylum Hr’g Tr.) (Cover Page). 2 No. 19-3859, Ba v. Barr Ba’s father died in 1990, which marked the beginning of Ba’s sexual abuse by his master. Id. at 727. Ba stated that his master “performed sodomy on [him].” Id. at 708. The abuse happened “frequently,” “[s]ometimes . . . twice a week.” Id. at 728. Ba never told his mother about the abuse, both because “[t]here was nothing [his] mother could have done about it,” and because “[i]t was shameful.” Id. at 728. After his mother’s death in 1992, id. at 707, “the abuse began to intensify.” Id. at 708. When asked why he did not struggle against the sexual abuse, Ba responded: “Resistance would have meant nothing. It wouldn’t have served any purpose. I had no rights. It was within his.” Id. at 714. Ba decided to flee. Id. at 716. Although he did not receive compensation for his labor from his master, he gradually saved up small amounts of money that he was given by suitors of his master’s daughters when they would come to court the daughters. Id. at 716–17. “[L]ittle by little,” Ba benefitted from this keep-the-change routine: A young man would come to the house to court the master’s daughter and to serve her tea; the man would give Ba money to go next door and purchase water, sugar, spoons, and other “accoutrements”; and when Ba would return to give the man the leftover money, the man would not take it, in order to “make a good impression in front of the woman.” Id. at 716–17. Ba put this money in a satchel, dug a hole, and hid it there. Id. at 717. In March 1998, he left the house when it was empty, took a taxi to the train station, and then took a car to the city of Nouakchott. Id. at 717–18. After arriving the next day, he took a car 3 No. 19-3859, Ba v. Barr with other passengers to Nouadhibou2, arriving the following day. Id. at 718. Ba used the money he had saved up to pay for these transportation expenses. Id. at 729–30. He decided to go to Nouadhibou because it was “very far away,” “[s]omewhere where one of [the master’s] relatives or a friend of his could not recognize [him].” Id. at 719. If he had been recognized, the master “would have had the right . . . either to . . . kill [him] or to . . . commit even worse atrocities than he had.” Id. In Nouadhibou, Ba walked to Cansado,3 where he eventually secured a job on a fishing boat and spent five months working without pay. Id. at 719–20. He “felt liberated” on this boat. Id. at 744. At the advice of the boat’s captain, Ba thereafter boarded another boat on May 5, 1998 that took him to the United States, and because the prior boat’s captain had “arranged the affair,” Ba did not have to pay for the transatlantic journey. Id. at 719–20. Ba did not remain in Nouadhibou because he “wanted to go very, very, very, very far from [his] master[,] [s]o when [he] had the occasion to get on a . . . fishing boat, [he] took it.” Id. at 731–32; id. at 744 (“Mauritania is large. But the population is not very big. And we can recognize one another very easily. I could have been recognized by a member of my master’s family, a friend of my master.”). With respect to identity documents, Ba was not able to secure a Mauritanian passport. Id. at 720. When asked why he had submitted a nationality certificate with his asylum application that indicated that he resided in Nouakchott, despite testifying that he resided in Kaédi for his 2 The name of his town is spelled incorrectly in the asylum hearing transcript. See, e.g., A.R. at 730 (Asylum Hr’g Tr. at 38) (“Nouadhibon”); Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Place Names (John Everett-Heath ed., 3d ed.) (“Nouadhibou”). 3 The name of his town is spelled incorrectly in the asylum hearing transcript. See A.R. at 719 (Asylum Hr’g Tr. at 27) (“Kasando”); Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Place Names (John Everett-Heath ed., 3d ed.) (“Cansado”). 4 No. 19-3859, Ba v. Barr entire life, he responded that he “received that document [from] [his] father when he was on his death bed” and “c[ouldn]’t say why it says that [he] lived in Nawacha.” Id. at 726–27.4 The IJ noted that she “d[id]n’t see any document saying that [he] w[as] a slave.” Id. at 751. Ba stated that he did not know “why the word slave isn’t indicated on [his] identity card.” Id. Ba testified that he did not know that under current Mauritanian law, adults could not be forced to remain with former masters. Id. at 738. “[W]hat I do know,” he stated, “is that there are still adults who are slaves.” Id. He testified that he possessed non-notarized documents from Mauritanian friends in Columbus, Ohio indicating that individuals are forced to return to their masters in Mauritania. Id. at 738–39. The IJ then questioned Ba about his language abilities and his nationality. Ba testified that his “best language”—and the national language of Mauritania—was French. Id. at 739–40. The IJ countered that the submitted Country Reports indicated that Arabic was the national language of Mauritania. Id. at 740. Ba explained that French was “our first language.” Id. The IJ asked, “[W]hy [are you] speaking in French when you were the slave of an Arabic -- of an Arab -- of an Arab-speaking Arab?” Id. Ba replied that at his master’s home they spoke Hassaniya, an Arabic dialect, but once his master took him out of school, Ba “decided that [he] wanted to keep as much as [he] could from what [he] had been learning in French,” so he spoke French as often as possible. Id. The IJ then asked, “What’s the national language of Senegal?” to which Ba responded, “I think it must be French.” Id. at 740–41. The IJ replied, “It is French. Are you from Senegal?” and Ba 4 “Nawacha” appears to be a phonetic spelling of the word “Nouakchott.” Compare A.R. at 727 (Asylum Hr’g Tr. at 35) (referring to “nationality certificate” that states that Ba lived in “Nawacha”), with id. at 791 (Second Asylum Appl., Translated Nationality Certificate) (issued by “Nouakchott Court of the First Instance”). 5 No. 19-3859, Ba v. Barr stated that he was “not Senegalese.” Id. at 741. The IJ stated that, “[t]he Court finds that it is highly unusual that you would have been enslaved from infancy in an Arabic family and be speaking French here today in Court.” Id. Ba explained that “after having seen and felt the atrocities that were committed against my family and myself, I decided to make French my -- a language.” Id. The following colloquy ensued: [IJ]: Well, we have an Arab interpreter this afternoon. If -- would you be able to speak to that Arab interpreter? [Ba]: But that would be going backwards. I, I couldn’t do it. [IJ]: You wouldn’t be able to speak in Arabic to an Arabic interpreter? You wouldn’t be able to hold a conversation in Arabic, would you? [Ba]: I’m not saying that I’m incapable. But the Hassaniya that we speak is a derivative of Arabic. So there, there are words that I could understand. But in general, we couldn’t communicate. [IJ]: Well, what about if this may be a Hassaniya interpreter. Will you be able to carry on a conversation this afternoon? [Interpreter]: A little bit. But he’s asking that the Judge not force him to return to memories that he would, he would rather not reinvoke. Id. at 741–42. The IJ later stated that she “believe[d] [that Ba] is Senegalese, quite frankly. Based on his language here today. French. Education.” Id. at 751. The IJ then noted that Ba had fled to Nouakchott and Nouadhibou, “where 60% are Senegalese.” Id. at 743. She further stated that “[i]t doesn’t sound like [Ba] w[as] a disadvantaged class” because Ba was “high school educated” and “was able to save up enough money to pay [his] way to the United States.” Id. at 745. The IJ remarked, “[O]ne principle of slavery is don’t educate them, I would think. This whole thing is implausible.” Id. at 748. She also remarked that it would be “really unusual” for Ba to have been enslaved in a city, when the Country Reports stated that 6 No. 19-3859, Ba v. Barr slavery “still exists in rare cases in the countryside,” id. at 749, and that he was “quite a different kind of slave” given his level of education, id. at 750.