Opinion ID: 171391
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: First Asylum Application

Text: On June 12, 2002, before he was placed in removal proceedings, Mr. Ribas filed his first, pro se, asylum application. He claimed he feared persecution from the government if he returned to Angola. He explained that his father had been accused of being an undercover agent of the Union for the Total Liberation of Angola (UNITA). A guerilla leader had accused his father of passing state secrets to UNITA from the father's position within the Angolan defense ministry. Mr. Ribas asserted that his father, mother, brothers and sisters had been arrested, brutalized, and taken to an unknown location based on the guerilla leader's accusations. They were likely still in prison or dead. He stated that the Angolan government had already cancelled his scholarship to study in the United States and would torture him if he were returned to Angola. The application for asylum form that Mr. Ribas signed warned him that Applicants determined to have knowingly made a frivolous application for asylum will be permanently ineligible for any benefits under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Id. at 662. [1] The asylum officer who reviewed his application found him only partially credible. Accordingly, he referred the case for proceedings before an immigration judge (IJ).