Case: 17-14332 Date Filed: 08/05/2019 Page: 1 of 15 [PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 17-14332 Non-Argument Calendar ________________________ Agency No. A209-339-475 IRFAN ALI, Petitioner, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ________________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals ________________________ (August 5, 2019) Before TJOFLAT, ROSENBAUM, and JULIE CARNES, Circuit Judges. TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge: The petitioner in this case asks us to review the Board of Immigration Appeals’s (the “Board’s”) denial of his asylum, withholding-of-removal, and Case: 17-14332 Date Filed: 08/05/2019 Page: 2 of 15 Convention Against Torture (“CAT”) claims. To effectively conduct our review, we must be left with the conviction, based on the record before us, that the Board has considered and reasoned through the most relevant evidence of the case. Because the Board has not left us with that conviction here, we grant the petition for review, vacate the Board’s decision, and remand the case to the Board for further consideration. I. Petitioner Irfan Ali is a Pakistani Ahmadi—that is, a practitioner of Ahmadiyya Islam. 1 The Department of Homeland Security initiated removal proceedings against Ali on the grounds that he entered the United States without a valid entry document and without being admitted or paroled by an immigration officer. During those proceedings, Ali sought asylum and withholding-of-removal relief under the Immigration and Nationality Act (the “INA”), as well as relief under the CAT. See 8 U.S.C. §§ 1158, 1231(b)(3); 8 C.F.R. § 208.16. The INA authorizes the Attorney General to grant asylum to any alien determined to be a “refugee” as defined by the statute. 8 U.S.C § 1158(b)(1)(A). Under the statute, a “refugee” is “one who is unable or unwilling to return to his or 1 The principal difference between Ahmadiyya Islam and Sunnism, the Muslim majority sect, centers on the identity of the reformer that the Prophet Muhammad foretold would appear after him. 2 Case: 17-14332 Date Filed: 08/05/2019 Page: 3 of 15 her home country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” Id. § 1101(a)(42)(A). To make out an asylum claim, an applicant must establish either past persecution or a well-founded fear of future persecution. Sama v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 887 F.3d 1225, 1231 (11th Cir. 2018); 8 C.F.R. § 208.13(b). This second basis for relief can be met either by coming forth with applicant-specific evidence or by showing, broadly speaking, the applicant’s affiliation with a group that is subject to a “pattern or practice” of persecution (otherwise known as group persecution). 8 C.F.R. § 208.13(b)(2)(iii). In all cases, the persecution must be “‘by government forces’ or ‘by non-government groups that the government cannot control.’” Sama, 887 F.3d at 1231−32 (quoting Ayala v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 605 F.3d 941, 948 (11th Cir. 2010)). Ali alleged past persecution and a well-founded fear of future persecution, both individually and as a member of a group: He ...
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