Court Opinion

ID: 9601120
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:36:49.086401+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:49:47.847243
License: Public Domain

RILEY, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in the court’s opinion except with respect to the court’s conclusion in Part II.B.2 that the IJ erred in determining Malonga’s Kongo ethnicity does not constitute membership in a particular social group. This court recently stated the phrase “ ‘[particular social group’ is an ambiguous phrase, not defined in the statute.” Ngengwe v. Mukasey, 543 F.3d 1029, 1033 (8th Cir.2008). As the majority correctly recognizes, while we review legal determinations de novo, we must also “ac-eord[ ] substantial deference to the [BIA]’s interpretation of the statutes and regulations it administers.” Uli v. Mukasey, 533 F.3d 950, 954-55 (8th Cir.2008) (citing Hassan v. Gonzales, 484 F.3d 513, 516 (8th Cir.2007)). We must give “Chevron deference to the BIA’s reasonable interpretation of the phrase [particular social group].” Ngengwe, 543 F.3d at 1033 (citing Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Res. Def. Council Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 842-45, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984)). In other words, we must defer to legal interpretations, provided they are not “arbitrary, capricious, or manifestly contrary to the statutory law.” Patel v. Ashcroft, 375 F.3d 693, 696 (8th Cir.2004) (citation omitted). We review the agency’s underlying factual findings for “substantial support in the record.” See Ngengwe, 543 F.3d at 1032 (citations omitted). Because the BIA’s and IJ’s interpretations are not arbitrary, capricious or manifestly contrary to law, and because the majority’s opinion gives insufficient deference to the BIA’s and the IJ’s determinations, I respectfully dissent.
The IJ found Malonga did not meet his burden of proof to show his Kongo ethnicity, an ethnicity shared by 48% of Congo’s population, constituted membership in a particular social group. The IJ noted “[s]imply being a member of that group does not place [Malonga] in any greater risk than any members of the rest of that group which comprise almost half of the population.” As the majority concedes, in part, there is precedent in this circuit declining to recognize a particular social *557group when the proposed group is “too large and diverse,” see Raffington v. INS, 340 F.3d 720, 723 (8th Cir.2003) (“mentally ill Jamaicans”), “too amorphous,” see Davila-Mejia v. Mukasey, 531 F.3d 624, 628-29 (8th Cir.2008) (“family business owners”), or “overbroad,” see Safaie v. INS, 25 F.3d 636, 640 (8th Cir.1994), superseded by statute on other grounds. In Safaie, this court considered whether Iranian women constituted a particular social group, concluding, “this category is overbroad, because no factfinder could reasonably conclude that all Iranian women had a well-founded fear of persecution based solely on their gender.” Id.
The majority quotes the BIA’s precedent, which defines a particular social group as “a group of persons all of whom share a common, immutable characteristic” such as “sex, color, kinship ties, or in some circumstances ... shared past experience.” But the majority does not find, and the record does not reflect, members of the Kongo tribe share a common, immutable characteristic of sex, color, kinship ties, or past experience as distinguished from the rest of the nation’s population or as some shared, common characteristic of the Kongo tribe. Instead, the majority argues the tribe members share a recognizable dialect and accent, identifiable surnames, and a concentration in southern Congo’s Pool Region. Such traits, without more, hardly identify a particular social group. As in Safaie, “no fact finder could reasonably conclude that all [members of the Kongo tribe] had a well-founded fear of persecution based solely on their [Kongo tribe membership].” Id.
The majority then decides, contrary to the IJ, that Malonga met his burden to prove his Kongo ethnicity constitutes membership in a particular social group. The majority’s expanded findings are no more reasonable for applying the particular social group label than the IJ’s and BIA’s findings that the Kongo ethnic tribe (48% of the population) is not a particular social group.
Affording substantial deference to the IJ’s and the BIA’s interpretation and application of the statutes and regulations it administers to the facts of this case, I would not disturb the agency’s determination that Malonga did not meet his burden to demonstrate his ethnicity qualified as membership in a particular social group.