Opinion ID: 3062720
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Louis’s Asylum Application

Text: In June 2004, Louis, a citizen of Haiti, unlawfully entered the United States. In August 2004, Louis filed an asylum application, claiming that the Lavalas Party of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had attempted to kill her father and had harassed her brother. The Department of Homeland Security charged Louis with removability as an alien present in the United States without being admitted or paroled. At an initial hearing, Louis conceded removability. Louis filed a supplemental asylum application describing the Lavalas government’s mistreatment of her father and brother. According to Louis, her brother was detained and beaten for two days after he criticized the Lavalas government at a political demonstration in 2003. In 2004, Lavalas supporters, called the Chimeres, went looking for and tried to kill 1 Louis makes a passing reference to the BIA’s denial of her claim for protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”), but offers no argument on this issue. Accordingly, Louis has abandoned her CAT claim. See Sepulveda v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 401 F.3d 1226, 1228 n.2 (11th Cir. 2005). 2 her father because he was involved with the Democratic Convention for Unity (“KID”) Party. Louis claimed that she feared returning to Haiti because the Chimeres Lavalas would identify her as a KID party member and kill her. Louis contended that the current Haitian government could not protect her because President Rene Preval is a former Lavalas official. Louis submitted newspaper articles indicating that from 2004, when Aristide was removed from power, until 2006, armed pro-Aristide gangs connected to the Lavalas Party engaged in a campaign of violence in an effort to destabilize the new government. One article written in January 2007 stated that, although Haiti remained unsettled, the violence had decreased because of joint operations between the Haitian government and the United Nations. The State Department’s 2007 Country Report on Human Rights indicated that neither the Haitian government nor its agents had engaged in politically motivated killings and disappearances. Although the Haitian government continued to have problems addressing killings by armed gangs, the government was working with the United Nations Stabilization Mission to suppress gang-related violence. At a merits hearing, Louis testified that her brother was arrested by police and detained after participating in a political demonstration in 2003. Louis’s brother was held for two days, during which he was beaten and whipped. After he was released, Louis’s brother fled Haiti. 3 Louis also testified that, in January 2004, six members of the Chimeres Lavalas came to her family home looking for her and her father and saying that they “need[ed] their bodies.” When Louis overheard that they were looking for her, she fled the house. Louis stayed with a nearby neighbor for approximately three months before leaving Haiti for the Dominican Republic in April 2004. Two months later, in June 2004, Louis came to the United States. Other than the January 2004 incident, Louis admitted that nothing happened to her. Louis’s father also fled Haiti, and she has not heard from him since. Louis’s mother continues to reside in their hometown in Haiti, but has moved to a new residence.