Oppong v. U.S. Attorney Gen.
| Decision Date | 15 September 2020 |
| Docket Number | No. 20-10535,20-10535 |
| Parties | ALBERT YAW OPPONG, Petitioner, v. U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
[DO NOT PUBLISH]
Non-Argument Calendar
Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals
Before JILL PRYOR, BRANCH, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
Albert Yaw Oppong, a native and citizen of Ghana, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals' ("BIA") dismissal of his appeal of the Immigration Judge's ("IJ") denial of his application for asylum and withholding of removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act ("INA"), 8 U.S.C. §§ 1158(a), 1231(b)(3), and relief under the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment ("CAT"), 8 C.F.R. § 208.16(c). With regard to his asylum claim, Oppong asserts that the record compels us to reverse the BIA's adverse credibility determination and conclusion that he failed to submit sufficient corroborating evidence. He relatedly argues that the BIA erred in denying his claims for withholding of removal and CAT relief because it failed to consider objective, corroborating evidence.1 We conclude that Oppong cannot prevail on any of these arguments and therefore deny his petition.
Oppong illegally entered the United States in December 2018 without a valid entry document and without having been admitted or paroled into the country. Shortly thereafter, Oppong, who was not represented by counsel at thetime, participated in a credible fear interview ("CFI") with an asylum officer. What he said—or rather what he did not say—during that interview is critical.
Following some preliminary questions, the asylum officer began the credible fear portion of the CFI by asking why Oppong left Ghana. Oppong responded that "some people in [his] community want to kill [him] because [he is] gay and [] practicing something that they don't believe in [his] country." When the asylum officer asked whether anyone in particular wanted to kill him, Oppong identified only a group of people that attacked him in October 2018, but when asked if he knew the people who attacked him, Oppong stated that he did not. The asylum officer then asked whether the 2018 attack was "the only time [he was] physically harmed," and Oppong replied: Prompted for more information, Oppong explained that the group broke into his bedroom at night while he was with his partner. Although his partner was able to flee out of the window and evade capture, the group pulled Oppong outside into the front yard, beat him, and stabbed him in his stomach. Oppong passed out and woke up in the hospital.
At the end of the CFI, the asylum officer read Oppong the following summary:
You fear that a group of people in your community will kill you in Ghana. You were at home with your partner one night sleeping when a group of men came and knocked down your door beat you up and stabbed you. You passed out and woke up in the hospital after havingan operation. The doctor who treated you hid you in his home until you recovered and then your partner came to get you and escaped the country. Prior to this attack you received many phone calls threatening to kill you after you began going out with your partner two years before. You did not report the attack to the police because they do not protect people who are gay since it is against the law in Ghana to have [a] relationship with a male.
The asylum officer asked if this summary was accurate and Oppong confirmed that it was. The asylum officer asked if he would like to change or add anything and Oppong responded: "[A]ll I can say is that I need protection now [and] I don't want to die."
In February 2019, the Department of Homeland Security served Oppong with a Notice to Appear, charging him with being removable under INA §§ 212(a)(7)(A)(i)(I) and 212(a)(6)(A)(i), 8 U.S.C. §§ 1182(a)(7)(A)(i)(I) and 1182(a)(6)(A)(i). At a master calendar hearing, Oppong conceded that he had entered the United States without a valid entry document and the IJ sustained the charge of removability. Through counsel, Oppong applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT relief, alleging persecution based on his membership, as a gay man, in a particular social group. In support of his application, Oppong submitted an affidavit.
It is noteworthy that Oppong's asylum application and the accompanying affidavit contain significantly more information than did his CFI. In addition to the 2018 attack that Oppong described in his CFI, Oppong alleged in hisapplication that his family, community, and the police had "harmed, mistreated, and threatened [him] on many different occasions," since he came out as gay in 2009. More specifically, Oppong attested to the following events in his affidavit: After Oppong told his high school classmates that he was not attracted to women, a male classmate raped him several times. Oppong was afraid to report his assault to the police, however, because his first consensual male partner's family threatened to call the police after discovering their relationship. He had also observed that police did not investigate the killings of gay men reported on the news. Oppong did not tell his family that he was gay until his 30th birthday, which prompted his father to begin abusing him and his mother to disown him, tell people in the community he was gay, and attempt to poison him (which he did not report to the police due to fear).
Oppong also stated in his affidavit that the police abused him and his long-term partner. On one occasion in 2015, the police apprehended them while they were dining at a restaurant, took them to a nearby field, lashed each of them 20 times with a cane, and threatened to arrest them if caught together again. Later that year, the police arrested Oppong, held him in a cell overnight, and beat him with a weapon made from a horse's tail. Oppong further attested that the police chased him and his friends on at least five other occasions.
Oppong also provided more information about the stabbing incident in 2018, which he had discussed in his CFI. Specifically, he noted that he believed that the chief of his community organized a "Kill the Gays" group that attacked him. The chief also empowered the police to discriminate against, and persecute, gay people in his community. After the "Kill the Gays" group stabbed him, the doctor who treated him said he could not issue a medical report because he would likely be fired for helping a gay man. Because Oppong believed neither the chief of his community, the police, nor his family would help him, he believed he had no choice but to flee the country following his release from the hospital. Oppong flew from Ghana to Ecuador and travelled through seven other countries before arriving in the United States. Oppong stated that he feared he would be killed if he returned to his Ghana, regardless of where he went in the country.
Oppong's testimony at his removal hearing largely tracked his affidavit: he testified that he was abused by a high school classmate, disowned by his mother (who also attempted to poison him), and ostracized by his community. He also testified to his relationship with his long-term partner, their harassment and abuse by the police, and the 2018 attack by the "Kill the Gays" group. He added that following the 2018 attack, he went to Accra, the capital of Ghana, but after receiving text messages that some people would find and kill him, he decided he was unsafe anywhere in the country and left.
The government's attorney asked Oppong why he testified to incidents he did not mention during his CFI.
With regard to the 2018 attack, specifically, Oppong testified that the "Kill the Gays" group had harassed him on prior occasions. The government's attorney asked him why he had not mentioned that fact to the immigration officers before.
Oppong replied: "I didn't know [that] I should come out with all this until I . . . contacted a lawyer, getting to know what is [meant] by asylum, that I have to tell my whole story."
The IJ interrupted direct and cross examination multiple times to inform Oppong that he was not being responsive to the questions asked of him. At one point, it became apparent that Oppong was looking at a piece of paper during questioning. Oppong's attorney explained that he had printed his questions to assist Oppong, and the IJ reminded Oppong to testify from personal experience.
Next, Oppong called Dr. Kathleen O'Mara as an expert witness on country conditions for gay men in Ghana. She testified that homosexuality is a...
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