Case: 20-61059 Document: 00516820287 Page: 1 Date Filed: 07/13/2023 United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit FILED July 13, 2023 No. 20-61059 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk Mercy Naah, Petitioner, versus Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney General, Respondent. Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals Agency No. A213 327 855 Before Clement, Oldham, and Wilson, Circuit Judges. Andrew S. Oldham, Circuit Judge:* Mercy Naah, a native of Cameroon, was charged as removable from the United States. She applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. Naah demonstrated that she is unable or unwilling to return to Cameroon because of past persecution * This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5. Case: 20-61059 Document: 00516820287 Page: 2 Date Filed: 07/13/2023 No. 20-61059 on account of her political opinion. Accordingly, we grant her petition for review as to her asylum and withholding of removal claims and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion. We need not consider her torture claim. I. Mercy Naah is an English-speaking citizen of Cameroon. There, she earned money by selling fuel on the side of the road. The Cameroonian government suspected her of selling fuel to Anglophone separatist fighters and arrested her in September 2017. For over a week, Naah was beaten severely at least sixteen times with machetes, sticks, batons, whips, and guns. The officers threatened to kill her. They tried to obtain information about the separatist rebels. Even after her captors ceased beating her, they refused to give her adequate food. After six to seven weeks in prison, Naah escaped and sought hospital treatment for her injuries. Naah presented medical records of her hospital visit. The doctors found that Naah had “[s]evere generalized body contusions” and “bruises” from the “serious beating all over [her] body.” ROA.256–57. Naah presented signs of “trauma, stress, multiple laceration and pressure sores, generalized body pains and tenderness,” and “abundant bleeding.” ROA.257. She was admitted to the intensive care unit, where she suffered from “progressive degeneration of consciousness,” and received sutures, multiple injections, an IV, and a transfusion of three whole pints of blood. ROA.257–58. After her hospitalization, Naah continued to live in Cameroon for eighteen months with her nephew in a nearby region, where she found a new job. In June 2019 her sister received a warrant for Naah’s arrest, charging Naah with secession. At that point, Naah left the country. Naah subsequently arrived in the United States without a valid entry document and applied for admission. An asylum officer found that she had 2 Case: 20-61059 Document: 00516820287 Page: 3 Date Filed: 07/13/2023 No. 20-61059 suffered past persecution and had a credible fear of future persecution. The Department of Homeland Security charged her with removability under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(7)(A)(i)(I). Naah conceded the charge. She then filed an application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). She claimed fear of persecution due …
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