Djonda v. U.S. Atty. Gen.

Decision Date24 July 2007
Docket NumberNo. 06-11275.,06-11275.
PartiesTchilabalo DJONDA, Petitioner, v. U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Uzo A. Akpele, Law Office of Uzo Akpele, Atlanta, GA, for Petitioner.

Russell J.E. Verby, U.S. Dept. of Justice, David V. Bernal, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Immigration Litigation, Regina Byrd, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Civil Div., Office of Immigration Litigation, Washington, DC, for Respondent.

Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Before BLACK and PRYOR, Circuit Judges, and LIMBAUGH,* District Judge.

PRYOR, Circuit Judge:

The two issues in this appeal are whether substantial evidence supports the findings of the Board of Immigration Appeals that Tchilabalo Djonda, a native and citizen of Togo, suffered a minor beating and brief detention, while in Togo, that did not amount to persecution, and whether Djonda is not likely to face more severe treatment there upon his return. Djonda petitions for review of a decision of the Board that affirmed an Immigration Judge's denial of Djonda's application for asylum, 8 U.S.C. § 1158(a)(1); withholding of removal, id. § 1231(b)(3); and relief under the United Nations Convention Against Torture. Djonda was detained for 36 hours and beaten by Togolese police for participating in a political rally. Medical records state that he suffered scratches and muscle bruises. A year later, Djonda received a summons to appear at a police station, where he believed he would be detained indefinitely and possibly killed. Djonda fled Togo rather than appear at the police station. Because the record does not compel a finding that Djonda suffered or is likely to suffer upon his return more than minor physical abuse and brief detention, we deny Djonda's petition.

I. BACKGROUND

Djonda entered the United States as a nonimmigrant student on January 9, 2003. After he arrived, he filed an application for asylum and withholding of removal on the ground that he suffered persecution in Togo on account of his political opinion and had a well-founded fear of future persecution. On September 25, 2003, Djonda was served with a Notice to Appear and charged with removability based on a failure to maintain his status as a student visitor. Djonda appeared and testified at a hearing before the Immigration Judge on September 30, 2004.

Before entering the United States, Djonda was a student in Togo at the University of Lome, which was operated by the government. In 2000 he joined the Union des Forces de Changement, an opposition political party in Togo. He also belonged to the Conseil des Étudiantes de l'Université de Lome, a student organization sympathetic to the Union but not formally associated with it.

On the night of December 17, 2001, Djonda was arrested for participating in a meeting of the Conseil at his university. On the way to the police station, the police discovered Djonda's documents of membership in the Union and beat him. Police officers asked Djonda why he would not support a president who was a member of the same tribe as Djonda.

When Djonda arrived at the police station, he was ordered to disrobe and was beaten with a belt and kicked. He was separated from the other Conseil members who had been arrested, and he spent the night in a small cell with 12 other people where he was unable to sleep. A policeman later asked Djonda if he was hungry, and when Djonda replied that he was, the policeman forced Djonda to drink some very dirty liquid and to eat something "very, very, very bad." A superior officer told Djonda that it was treason for Djonda to oppose a president from his own tribe and forced Djonda to sign a document declaring that the Conseil was financed by the Union to create trouble. After he signed the paper, Djonda was told that the next time he was arrested he "was going to rot in jail" and the declaration Djonda signed would be used as evidence against him.

Approximately 36 hours after his arrest, Djonda was released. Djonda's brother took him to the hospital, where he stayed for two days. The medical records from this stay stated that Djonda was "covered with blood" when he arrived at the clinic. Djonda had multiple scratches, mostly around his neck and knees, and multiple muscle bruises, but x-rays revealed no damage to his vertebral column or skull. The doctor concluded Djonda needed to rest for two weeks and prescribed him several medications. Over the course of the next year, Djonda continued to attend Union and Conseil meetings but refrained from participating in big demonstrations, where many arrests were made.

Two of Djonda's brothers were active in politics, and both were targeted by the ruling party. At the time of Djonda's hearing before the Immigration Judge, Djonda's older brother, Abalo, was in hiding somewhere near the Togo-Benin border. A second older brother, Tchiao, was a member of the Executive Board of the Union in Kara, Togo. On January 4, 2003, Tchiao was arrested in the northern part of Togo by the eldest son of the president. At the time of his hearing, Djonda and his family had not heard from Tchiao and did not know where Tchiao was, although they believed he was either still in prison or had been killed.

Two days after Tchiao's arrest, two members of a student group loyal to the president told Djonda that they knew Tchiao had been arrested and imprisoned two days earlier and that Djonda would follow his brother to prison. Djonda took this threat seriously because it was not yet public knowledge that Tchiao had been arrested, which suggested that the students acquired their knowledge through government channels. On January 7, Djonda received a summons to appear at the police station the next day as part of an investigation. Individuals who had received such invitations were being detained upon arriving at the police station.

Djonda's uncle called a friend of his who was a policeman and told him Djonda had received a summons, had been previously detained by the police, and was forced to sign the declaration stating that the Conseil was funded by the Union. The friend said that those responding to the invitations were being detained and, because Djonda had signed the declaration the first time he was detained, "it would not be advisable for [him] to go [to the police station]. There would be consequences."

The day before Djonda received the summons, he had acquired a student visa to study in the United States. After Djonda's uncle talked with his friend at the police station, Djonda and his uncle decided that Djonda should leave for the United States immediately, instead of when Djonda had intended to leave. Djonda's uncle owned a travel agency and arranged a flight out of Togo for the following day, January 8. The policeman-friend of the family stamped Djonda's passport so that Djonda would not have to interact with the authorities, and Djonda arrived in Atlanta on January 9.

Soon after Djonda arrived in the United States, another summons to the police station arrived at his house in Togo. On January 20, his uncle was summoned to the police station and held for several hours to answer questions about Djonda's whereabouts. The police said they would find Djonda and that, when they did, they would imprison him. Djonda's uncle was later interrogated two more times about Djonda's whereabouts.

The next month, in February 2003, Djonda's uncle was involved in a mysterious car accident when a large truck that had been following his car for some time suddenly hit his car and drove away. The uncle suffered a broken leg and spent a month in the hospital as a result of the crash. The harassment suffered by Djonda's uncle made it difficult for him to fund Djonda's education abroad, and eventually Djonda was unable to maintain his status as a student.

In addition to his medical records, Djonda presented other documentary evidence in support of his claims. A sworn statement from his brother, Abalo, recounted how Abalo had been targeted by the Togolese police and was in hiding. This statement also asserted that a classmate of Djonda who had fled to Ghana was arrested when he returned to visit his family. An email from Djonda's younger brother dated April 24, 2004, stated that Djonda's family still hadn't heard from Tchiao and "believe[d] that he [wa]s still jailed in the camp Landja of Kara." This email also stated that Abalo recently had visited for thirty minutes before heading for Benin. A sworn statement from Djonda's uncle dated May 1, 2004, stated, "A member of our family is actually in jail and we have not heard from him for a long time," and that the uncle had been "under constant menace" since Djonda fled. An email from a friend of Djonda dated March 31, 2004, read in part, "The students' situation is becoming worse and worse . . . . I think that you and the ones who fled were lucky to leave when you did. I am sure you don't think of coming back here because everybody who returned are declared not found or found dead in the streets." Finally, Djonda submitted various State Department Country Reports and Amnesty International publications about the general country conditions in Togo.

The Immigration Judge denied Djonda's application for asylum. The Immigration Judge concluded that Djonda's single detention did not amount to past persecution. He also concluded that Djonda failed to present documentation that adequately supported, and was consistent with, his oral testimony concerning a well-founded fear of future persecution. Because Djonda failed to establish eligibility for asylum, the Immigration Judge found him ineligible for withholding of removal and relief under the Convention Against Torture.

On appeal, the Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed the decision of the Immigration Judge but disagreed with some of his findings. The Board found that Djonda "not only testified credibly, but also submitted numerous documents corroborating the...

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  • Chen v. U.S. Atty. Gen., 07-11562.
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit
    • January 17, 2008
    ...U.S. Att'y Gen. 332 F.3d 1321, 1326 (11th Cir.2003). Findings of fact must be supported by substantial evidence. Djonda v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 493 F.3d 1245, 1249 (11th Cir.2007). Findings of fact are followed unless a reasonable factfinder would be compelled to a conclusion contrary to that o......

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