United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 17-1338 ___________________________ Mark Tettey Kom Degbe lllllllllllllllllllllPetitioner v. Jefferson B. Sessions, III, Attorney General of the United States; John F. Kelly, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security lllllllllllllllllllllRespondents ____________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals ____________ Submitted: February 13, 2018 Filed: August 13, 2018 ____________ Before SMITH, Chief Judge, MURPHY and COLLOTON, Circuit Judges.* ____________ SMITH, Chief Judge. Mark Tettey Kom Degbe petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) denial of his request for asylum, withholding of removal, and * Chief Judge Smith and Judge Colloton file this opinion pursuant to 8th Cir. Rule 47E. application for relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) based on his claim that he faces danger in his home country of Ghana. We deny the petition. I. Background Degbe came to the United States from Ghana in June 2002 on a B1/B2 non-immigrant visa. It authorized him to stay until late July 2002. However, he did not return to Ghana. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) filed a Notice to Appear in 2007 charging Degbe with being removable pursuant to Immigration and Nationalization Act (INA) § 237(a)(1)(B). He did not appear, and in 2008, the immigration judge (IJ) entered a removal order in absentia. Degbe, nonetheless, remained in the United States. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Degbe after he was in a car accident in North Dakota in May 2014. In July 2014, he filed an emergency motion to reopen and rescind the 2008 removal order with the immigration court on the basis that the order was entered without proper notice, depriving him of the chance to resist his removal on the merits. Following the IJ’s grant of the motion, Degbe filed an application for asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT relief. Degbe’s claim rested on his political activities while in Ghana. He supported the then-opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in the 2000 elections. The NPP sought to take power from the ruling New Democratic Congress (NDC). Degbe alleged that he worked as a youth organizer for the NPP and canvassed for the NPP in a suburb of Accra, Ghana’s capital. Degbe averred that he was attacked twice during the campaign. In one incident, a group of people threw stones at him. He was hit and suffered the loss of a tooth. Degbe claimed to have reported the stone-throwing incident to local police, who took no action, according to Degbe, as a result of pro-NDC sentiment in the police force. He also alleged that persons wearing NDC shirts stabbed him with a knife, leaving painful keloid scars. Degbe represented that Ghanaian doctors told him to come to the United States to have the -2- scars treated, though he did not actually receive treatment for the scars until 2007. Degbe contended he could not afford the treatment prior to 2007. The NPP, Degbe’s party, won the 2000 election. However, the NDC ...
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