Matter of E-N-N-

Summary

The Board of Immigration Appeals sustained the Department of Homeland Security’s appeal from an Immigration Judge’s grant of withholding of removal to a Cameroonian respondent. The Board found clear error in the Immigration Judge’s credibility determination and legal error in the conclusory finding of a pattern or practice of persecution against Anglophones in Cameroon, and remanded for further proceedings.

Holdings

1. The Immigration Judge clearly erred by finding the respondent credible without addressing material inconsistencies, implausibilities, and errors in the medical evidence. The failure to provide adequate credibility findings requires further evaluation on remand.
2. The Immigration Judge committed legal error by relying on a conclusory pattern-or-practice finding, applying a likelihood standard rather than the clear-probability or more-likely-than-not standard, and failing to explain why the respondent's unharmed, similarly situated family members did not undermine the claim.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Immigration Judge clearly erred by finding the respondent credible without addressing inconsistencies, implausibilities, and errors in the supporting medical evidence.
2. Whether the Immigration Judge legally erred in finding a pattern or practice of persecution against Anglophones in Cameroon based on a conclusory analysis, an incorrect likelihood standard, and without addressing the respondent's similarly situated family members who remained unharmed.
3. Whether the record should be remanded for further proceedings and a new decision.

Disposition

remanded