Malonga v. Holder, No. 09-2218

In Malonga v. Holder, No. 09-2218, a petition for review of the BIA's denial of petitioner's application for withholding of removal, the court granted the petition where 1) the court could not say the record shows more than periodic instances of mistreatment that did not rise to the level of persecution and other incidents that could not be clearly connected to a protected ground; 2) the court could not tell from the BIA's opinion whether it considered petitioner's political activities after he left the Congo; and 3) the BIA's pattern and practice analysis failed to account for the risks petitioner argued he would face as an actual or imputed political dissident.

As the court wrote:  "Noel Malonga, a native and citizen of the Republic of the Congo ("the Congo"), petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA") denying withholding of removal. He claims past persecution and a clear probability of persecution upon return on account of his ethnicity and political opinion. We grant the petition for review and remand for reconsideration of whether he faces a clear probability of persecution based on political opinion."

Related Resources

• Full Text of Malonga v. Holder, No. 09-2218