Lead Opinion
Mоore, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which GIBSON, J., joined. BOGGS, J. (pp. 289-91), delivered a separate dissenting opinion.
OPINION
Mohamed Haider (“Haider”) petitions this court for review of the order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) denying his application for withholding of removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) and the United Nations Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). The Immigration Judge (“IJ”) denied relief and the BIA affirmed on the ground that Haider could not prove that his life or freedom would be threatened on account of a protected ground or that he would be tortured in Algeria. Having reviewed the evidence carefully, we hold that it compels a finding that Algerian police abused Haider because of a suspected political affiliation and that the abuse constituted persecution. We therefore GRANT the petition for review and REMAND with respect to Haider’s INA claim. At the same time, we DENY the petition with respect to his claim under the CAT.
I. BACKGROUND
A. Factual Background
Haider was born in Algeria in 1977 and lived there until 2000, when he moved to France. On September 8, 2001, he entered the United States with a fake French passport. On December 28, 2002, he married Lisa Upshaw, a U.S. citizen. On January 6, 2003, he filed an application for asylum, withholding of removal under the INA, and withholding of removal under the CAT. His application remained open for five years, during which time he secured a visa through his wife, applied for and was denied adjustment of status, received a notice to appear based on his 2001
The GIA. Haider dropped out of school in 1995 because terrorist activity in the area made it too dangerous to continue. He began working for his uncle, a clothing seller who often traveled to Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya to buy clothes. That year, an аnti-government terrorist group known as the GIA
In 1996 or 1997, the GIA shot and killed Haider’s cousin, who worked as a mechanic, for refusing to give them a car. In 1997, the GIA murdered Haider’s friend, who had worked for the police for six months, in front of him at a shopping plaza. They said to Haider, “[i]t’s been a while, we haven’t seen you, how’s Libya?” to show that they remembered him. Joint Appendix (“J.A.”) at 167-68. They then kicked his friend to the ground, shot him in the leg, and shot him twice in the chest or head. The GIA continued trying to recruit Haider through 1998.
The Police. The police often searched Haider and accused him of working with terrorists. In 1996, they stopped him as he returned home, searched him, and said “you work for the terrorists.” J.A. at 144. In May 1996, four officers searched him and his luggage, pulled down his pants, and “started doing stuff.” J.A. at 145. They put a large gun into his buttocks, asked tauntingly “how do you like that?” and demanded that he admit to aiding the terrorists. J.A. at 145-46. When they released him, they warned “it’s going to be the same thing” the next time. J.A. at 146.
That summer, officers in another area stopped Haider and two friends for questioning. The police detained him for five hours, took his clothes off, spat in his face, and repeatedly struck him in his back with a gun, causing bruising. They accused him of being a terrorist spy and promised worse abuse if they ever saw him again.
In February or March 1997, police accosted him on the street and struck him four times in his right ear. The officers put him against a wall, searched him and his luggage, and stole some of his merchandise. One of them also pulled down Haider’s pants, put his hands on and in Haider’s buttocks, and did the same with a large gun. Again, they threatened him with worse the next time. Two months later, Haider went to see a doctor about the flu, and the doctor informed him he had blood in his right ear.
On July 8, 1997, officers who had abused Haider in the past ran over his brother, killing him. The police, who were responding to a reported car bomb, claimed the incident was an accident. Haider believes that they killed his brother on purpose and tried to cover it up. The police tried to get Haider to sign a statement, but he refused and convinced his family to
During his final years in Algeria, Haider moved between relatives to avoid the police. He illegally entered France in 2000 and the United States in 2001, arriving just before the attacks of September 11th. In January 2007, Haider’s mother visited the United States. She told him that the police had asked about him in 2002 and that the GIA was still active in their area.
B. Administrative Rulings and Petition for Review
The IJ delivered his decision orally. First, he found Haider’s asylum claim time-barred. An asylum applicant must show by clear and convincing evidence that he filed within one year of arrival in the United States, a period that can be extended due to extraordinary circumstances. 8 U.S.C. § 1158(a)(2)(B), (D). Haider filed his application almost sixteen months after entering the country. The IJ found that his fear in light of posWSeptember-llth government suspicion of Muslim men explained why he did not file immediately, but not why he waited sixteen months.
Second, the IJ discussed Haider’s credibility. He found nothing in Haider’s demeanor to indicate deception and described the testimony as “fairly detailed and, for the most part ... plausible.” J.A. at 80. However, he found Haider’s failure to include the police incidents in his application “troubling.” J.A. at 81. The IJ was “not really persuaded” by Haider’s explanation that he had been too embarrassed to include this information, as Haider seemed to testify to the events without difficulty. J.A. at 81. The IJ also noted the absence of corroborating statements from family members or a doctor and found it “curious” that Haider reported no contacts with the GIA or police after 1999. J.A. at 82. He concluded that the sum of these concerns “detracts from the respondent’s credibility ... meaning that the Court will give less weight to the respondent’s testimony.” J.A. at 83. The IJ did not say that he believed some parts of the testimony but not others.
Third, the IJ found Haider ineligible for withholding of removal under the INA. He noted that the police suspected Haider of being connected to terrorists, but he did not decide whether Haider had established a protected ground. Instead, the IJ held that the GIA’s recruitment efforts did not constitute past persecution and that the police, in light of the single five-hour detention and the fact that Haider never needed medical attention, had only harassed him. The IJ further found no likelihood of future threat to life or freedom, emphasizing that Haider reported no contact with the GIA or police from 1999 to 2000.
Finally, the IJ denied relief under the CAT, finding that the police abuse was not torture and that Haider had not shown
The BIA adopted and affirmed the IJ’s decision on August 6, 2008. It agreed that the asylum application was time-barred. The BIA stated that “the IJ did not make a specific credibility finding” but committed “no clear error” in “finding that the respondent failed to adequately meet his burden of proof’ under the INA. J.A. at 2. The BIA affirmed the IJ’s reasoning that the police abuse did not amount to persecution and added that Haider was not targeted for his religious beliefs or political opinion, “imputed or otherwise.” J.A. at 3. The BIA also affirmed the denial of the CAT claim because the abuse did not meet the definition of torture. Haider timely filed a petition for review. This court stayed his removal on October 27, 2008.
II. ANALYSIS
A. Standard of Review
Because the BIA adopted and added to the IJ’s decision, we review the opinion of the IJ and the BIA’s supplemental comments. See Bi Feng Liu v. Holder,
B. Two Preliminary Issues
Before arguing the merits оf his eligibility for withholding, Haider raises two errors that he believes require remand: (1) the BIA’s application of the wrong standard of review in affirming the IJ’s decision, and (2) the IJ’s failure to make an explicit credibility determination.
The BIA must review an IJ’s factual findings for clear error and legal conclusions de novo. 8 C.F.R. § 1003.1(d)(3); Matter of A-S-B-, 24 I. & N. Dec 493, 496 (BIA 2008). Haider points to two parts of the BIA’s opinion that appear to apply an improperly deferential standard. First, the BIA stated, “[w]e find no clear error on the part of the Immigration Judge in finding that the respondent failed to adequately meet his burden” under the INA. J.A. at 2. Second, the BIA appeared to apply the substantial-evidence standard, observing that “the record does not compel the conclusion that he reasonably feared the GIA would persecute him because of a political opinion.” J.A. at 3. These statements do not reflect the proper standard of review for mixed questions of law and fact. In the rest of the opinion, however, the BIA wrote in decidedly de novo terms. It held, “[b]y the respondent’s own admission, the actions of the GIA and the police were not on account of his religious beliefs or political opinion, imputed or otherwise .... We find that the respondent has not established that either of his alleged persecutors acted on account of his opinion, imputed or otherwise.” J.A. at 3. The BIA should have taken more care with its opinion and avoided the improper statements, but it denied relief based on its own view of the evidence.
Next, Haider objects that the IJ failed to make an unambiguous credibility determination. On the one hand, the IJ found that Haider’s demeanor suggested honesty and that his testimony was detailed and
Haider argues that the case must be remanded for an explicit credibility determination, as he contends that meaningful review is impossible on the current record. The government urges us to follow the language of our unpublished opinion in Maklaj v. Mukasey,
We therefore adopt the following procedure: when an IJ or the BIA expresses suspicion about an applicant’s lack of credibility but the BIA fails to make an explicit adverse determination and instead denies relief on some other basis, we will assume that the applicant was credible in order to review the actual grounds for the ruling. This procedure tracks the analytical path taken by the IJ or the BIA. If we conclude that the stated basis for denying relief was supported by substantial evidence, further review is foreclosed. If the evidence compels the opposite result, however, we will remand for a credibility determination. See, e.g., Cordon-Garcia v. INS,
Following the procedure laid out above, we shall also assume Haider’s credibility and address the question of past persecution. Because, as we explain below, we conclude that the finding that Haider had not been persecuted was not supported by substantial evidence, we must remand to the BIA for determination of which parts of Haider’s testimony were and were not credible. See INS v. Ventura,
C. Withholding of Removal Under the INA
Under § 241(b)(3) of the INA, the government may not remove an alien to a country if he can prove that it is more likely than not that his “life or freedom would be threatened in that country because of the alien’s race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3)(A). If the applicant establishes past persecution, it is presumed that his life or freedom would be threatened in the future. 8 C.F.R. § 208.16(b)(1)(i). That presumption can be rebutted if an IJ finds that there has been a fundamental
Haider argues that the evidence compels a finding that he was abused on account of imputed political opinion and that the abuse constituted persecution. As explained below, we agree.
1. Protected Ground: Imputed Political Opinion
Invoking a ground not relied upon by the IJ, the BIA denied Haider’s application for lack of a nexus bеtween the abuse he suffered and any protected ground listed in the statute. Haider responds that both the GIA and the police targeted him because of a political opinion they imputed to him. The Supreme Court has never decided whether imputed political opinion can be a protected ground, but the Sixth Circuit has held in an unpublished order that it is. See Abdulnoor v. Ashcroft,
Haider has no argument as to the GIA. Nowhere in the briefing does he delineate the imputed political opinion for which the terrorist group allеgedly persecuted him. To the extent he might be arguing that the GIA saw his refusal to join them as politically motivated, there is no support for this in the record. See INS v. Elias-Zacarias,
The police targeted him, Haider argues, because they believed he was in league with the GIA. The IJ specifically found that “the police and security forces suspected that the respondent might have some sort of terrorist connections.” J.A. at 83. The BIA went one step further, finding that the “[t]he police investigators arrested him because they believed that he was associated with GIA.” J.A. at 3 (emphasis added). But in the immediately preceding sentence, the BIA concluded that “the aсtions of the ... police were not on account of his ... political opinion, imputed or otherwise.” This statement raises the question, does suspected affiliation with an anti-government terrorist group constitute imputed political opinion?
Prior cases from this circuit and our sister courts suggest the answer is “yes.”
These cases and the evidence Haider presented compel the conclusion that the police abused Haider because of an imputed political opinion. Like the Iraqi coup-plotters, Kashmiri terrorists, and the Tamil Tigers, the GIA is a militant group that seeks to overthrow the government. There is no lack of evidence that the police in fact were motivated by Haider’s suspected connection to the GIA, as they repeatedly called him a terrorist and asked about the group when they stopped him. The BIA made this causal finding. Accordingly, the BIA’s conclusion that Haider did not establish a protected ground was unsupported by substantial evidence. We are compelled to conclude that Haider established a protected ground based on imputed political opinion.
The INA does not define “persecution.” Mikhailevitch v. INS,
The IJ (and this court) must evaluate past persecution based on “the overall context of the applicant’s situation.” Id. That is, the IJ must view the evidence in the aggregate, as “a collection of harmful events, even though they may not qualify individually as persecution, [that] may taken together constitute persecution.” Stenaj v. Gonzales,
We hold that the evidence compels a finding of persecution. Haider testified to being repeatedly stopped, searched, and accused of being a GIA terrorist by police. They confiscated his property, stealing clothes from his suitcases of merchandise. The police physically assaulted him, once punching him four times in the ear and another time striking him with a gun three times in his back and shoulder. On one occasion, police detained Haider for five hours, interrogated him about alleged terrorist connections, and struck him repeatedly in the back with a gun. Most disturbingly, three separate times Haider suffered sexual abuse and humiliation at the hands of the police, twice in public places. In the May 1996 incident, after stopping him on the street, officers pulled down his pants, put a gun “up in [his] butt,” and taunted him, “how do you like that?” J.A. at 145. That summer, officers removed his clothes during an interrogation at the police station. And during the February/March 1997 incident, again in the street, an officer pulled down Haider’s pants and prоdded him in the buttocks “first ... with his hands, then ... with the big gun.” J.A. at 153. After each episode, they threatened him with more of the same.
Even setting aside the incidents that could be viewed as retaliation for the filing of the lawsuit, we conclude that Haider experienced most of the actions listed in Zacarías. These abuses cannot be characterized as isolated incidents or mere verbal harassment, and the officers’ questions about the GIA make clear that they specifically targeted him. The cases cited by the government and relied on by the BIA are distinguishable. In Thanasi v. Gonzales,
In reaching a contrary conclusion, the IJ failed to analyze all the relevant facts and consider them in the aggregate. After
As discussed above, our conclusion that the allegations, if true, amount to past persecution requires us to remand to thе BIA for a proper credibility determination. If, upon remand, the BIA credits Haider’s testimony about the events reviewed here, the evidence compels a finding of past persecution and Haider is entitled to a presumption that his life or freedom would be threatened upon removal to Algeria. 8 C.F.R. § 208.16(b)(1)(i). The BIA should then consider whether the government can rebut the presumption, id., and if so, whether Haider can prove the likelihood of future threat to life or freedom, id. § 208.16(b)(2).
Under the Convention Against Torture, removal must be withheld if “it is more likely than not that [the applicant] would be tortured if removed to the proposed country of removal.” 8 C.F.R. § 208.16(c)(2). No protected-ground nexus is required. Almuhtaseb,
The IJ’s denial of relief under the CAT was supported by substantial evidence. The police abuse was not so severe as to constitute torture. See Shkulaku-Purballori v. Mukasey,
III. CONCLUSION
Assuming Haider’s testimony to be credible, we hold that the evidence compels a finding that the police abused Haider based on an imputed political opinion, namely, his suspected affiliation with the GIA. Our assumption of Haider’s credibility, however, was just that — an assumption. As the IJ expressed some concern about the reliability of his testimony, the casе must be returned to the BIA to permit factfinding along these lines. We therefore GRANT the petition as to withholding of removal under the INA and REMAND for proceedings consistent with this opinion. We also conclude that neither the actions of the Algerian police nor those of the GIA amounted to torture. Accordingly, we DENY the petition with respect to withholding of removal under the CAT.
Notes
. GIA stands for Armed Islamic Group, from the French "Groupe Islamique Armé.” After the military seized control of the Algerian government in 1991 to prevent the rise of an Islamic political party, the GIA sprung up in response and launched terrorist attacks on government institutions and officials throughout the 1990s.
. Haider watched an area and reported back that he had seen nothing. The government argued below that this act made him ineligible for relief. Neither the IJ nor the BIA addressed this point, and the government has not raised it in its brief on appeal.
. The BIA read the IJ's opinion as making exactly the opposite finding. It wrote that the IJ "discussed the lack of detail and vagueness in the respondent’s testimony compared with his application for relief.” J.A. at 2. The BIA also referred to "Albania” instead of "Algeria” at one point. J.A. at 3.
. The government cites three cases from other jurisdictions in support of its position that credibility must be assumed and remand avoided, none of which requires us to rethink our reasoning. The first, Chen Lin-Jian v. Gonzales,
In the second case, Toure v. Attorney General,
In the third case cited by the government, Kataria v. INS,
. Maklaj cited Gilaj v. Gonzales,
. As in the usual course, the BIA’s or IJ’s credibility determination would then be reviewable by this court for substantial evidence.
. The dissent, by contrast, answers "no,” in light of a BIA decision holding that "refuge is restricted to individuals who are either unable by their own actions, or as a matter of conscience should not be required, to avoid persecution.” Dissent at 290 (quoting In re Acosta, 19 I. & N. Dec. 211, 234 (BIA 1985), overruled, on other grounds by In re Mogharra
. The Sixth Circuit has confronted similar imputed-political-opinion claims in a number of cases in which we have denied relief on bases other than failure to establish a causal nexus to a protected ground. See, e.g., Singh v. Ashcroft,
. It might be argued that there is a difference between persecution for imputed illegitimate conduct and persecution for imputed opinion or membership in a political group. That is, if the police pеrsecuted Haider for what they thought he did (spying for the GIA) rather than what they thought he believed (that the government should be toppled) or what group they thought he belonged to (the GIA), then
Even if the conduct-opinion distinction were appropriate in some cases, it has no application here. The BIA explicitly found that the police abused Haider "because they believed that he was associated with the GIA” — i.e., because of his imputed membership with a political organization. J.A. at 3. The dissent doubts that the police viewed the GIA as a political organization, based on their reference to Haider as a "terrorist” as opposed to a "dissident” or an "activist.” The police's use of the word "terrorist” is a thin reed indeed on which to hold that Haider has not established a protected ground. The record below made clear that the GIA had a political agenda. J.A. at 255 (State Department report explaining that the group "launched terrorist campaigns against government figures and institutions to protest the banning of the Islamist parties”). The word "terrorist” can carry a political valence, and we have no indication that the police intended it to refer to violent acts alone and not also anti-government activity. It demands too much to require that the police, while abusing an applicant, use epithets as pro-opposition as those suggested by the dissent.
. Importantly, the applicant in Gilaj did not spell out exactly what happened to her. She testified that during a search of her home, the police “started to provoke [her] as a woman,” which thе court characterized as a sexual assault or molestation, and possibly only an attempted one.
. As an additional basis for affirmance, the government raises the IJ's expression of concern that Haider presented no statements from his family or doctor to corroborate his allegations. In some cases, the IJ uses the lack of corroborating evidence to support a credibility determination. See, e.g., Xue Rong Zheng v. Holder,
.It is in this inquiry that the BIA can evaluate the significance of Haider’s family’s continued residence in Algeria and the fact that he reported no police harassment during his final years in that country. The abuse Haider claims to have experienced through 1997 constitutes past persecution. The argument that
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
I concur with the majority’s well-reasoned discussion of the “preliminary issues” raised by the petitioner in this case. I believe that, despite the BIA’s imprecise articulation of the proper standard of review, it ultimately applied de novo review to the evidence before it. Moreover, I believe that it makes good sense in this ease to assume the petitioner’s testimony to have been credible, because none of the petitioner’s allegations with respect to facts undergirding the dispositive issues appear to have been discounted by the IJ or the BIA.
I write separately, however, to express my disagreement with the majority’s belief that it is compelled to conclude that the Algerian police’s actions in this case were motivated by Mohamed Haider’s imputed political opinions. Whereas the majority would hold that “suspected affiliation with an anti-government terrorist grouр consti
We are required to give “deference to the BIA’s reasonable interpretation of the statutes and regulations” it enforces. Lin v. Holder,
Furthermore, “refuge is restricted to individuals who are either unable by their own actions, or as a mattеr of conscience should not be required, to avoid persecution.” Acosta, 19 I. & N. Dec. at 234. Thus, the INA provides refuge for those persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion only to the extent that these beliefs or characteristics are beyond the control of the applicant or are of the kind that we believe “as a matter of conscience” that a petitioner ought not be required to change to avoid persecution.
Is affiliation with a terrorist group a “belief?” One cannot reasonably contend so. A terrorist group, as the name implies, is not defined by the political opinions it espouses but by its methods. Is it a “characteristic?” Perhaps, if one views a tendency to resort to violence as a political weapon as a “characteristic,” but in no event could such a tendency bе described as one that a petitioner could not change, or should not be required to change. As the record in this case indicates, the GIA and its splinter groups were involved in active terrorist campaigns that targeted civilians; during the 1990s, they were part of a wave of terrorism that took the lives of more than 100,000 Algerians. The GIA’s methods were calculated to achieve its aims not through political discourse of the kind we should protect “as a matter of conscience,” but through indiscriminate violence and threats of violence designed to cause widespread chaos and fear that might permit them to bully their way into power.
The actions of the Algerian police, of course, may have been no better in this case than those of their enemies. If Mr. Haider’s testimony is to be believed, their humiliating attacks on him with little or no evidence of his connection to the GIA deserve to be condemned. While one mаy sympathize with Mr. Haider’s plight, however, victimization by arbitrary thuggishness is decidedly not a protected ground, and there is simply no evidence that the police abused him on account of his imputed political opinion, as opposed to their belief that he was affiliated with a group that — regardless of its politics — engaged in the murder of civilians in a quest for power.
The majority anticipates this argument in its footnote 9, but does not provide a convincing reply. In claiming that a distinction between political opinion and conduct “would be in tension” with case law, it points to one unpublished decision of this circuit (Abdulnoor v. Ashcroft,
Curiously, the majority concludes that “[ejven if the conduct-opinion distinction were appropriate in some cases, it has no application here. The BIA explicitly found that the police abused Haider ‘because they believed that he was associated with the GIA’ — i.e., because of his imputed membership with a political organization.” This simply begs the question, however; whether Haider’s association with the GIA was, in the police’s eyes, an association with a political organization is precisely the issue under discussion. I find that a review of the evidence in this case produces sincere doubt as to that question, given that the Algerian police are not described as calling Haider a “dissident” or an “activist,” but rather, as the majority notes, a “terrorist.”
Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
. While the majority is doubtless correct that such a term can "carry a political valence,” Majority Opinion at 286 n. 9, there is no evidence in this case that it did. The very State Department report cited by the majority states that the GIA "launched terrorist campaigns against government figures and institutions to protest the banning of the Islamist parties.” Ibid. (emphases added). There is no suggestion in the record that Haider was singled out because the GIA "protested] the banning of the Islamist parties” rather than because it "launched terrorist campaigns.” Of course terrorism can be in aid of political goals- — -it usually is. When Josef Stalin masterminded bank robberies that left dozens dead, he did so to fund Lenin's nascent Bolshevik Party. See Simon Sebag Montefiore, Young Stalin 3-16 (Vintage Books 2008). When the Russian government sought to bring him to justice for those crimes, must we believe it did so on account of his political opinions, rather than because he was a murderer and a thief?
. Because I believe that the evidence does not compel the conclusion that Haider was