Case: 19-60207 Document: 00515656094 Page: 1 Date Filed: 12/01/2020 United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit FILED December 1, 2020 No. 19-60207 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk Mirta C. Cordero Frances, also known as Mirta Caridad Cordero Frances, Petitioner, versus William P. Barr, U.S. Attorney General, Respondent. Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals BIA No. A215 615 316 Before Owen, Chief Judge, and King and Engelhardt, Circuit Judges. Per Curiam:* Mirta Cordero Frances (“Cordero Frances”) petitions for review of an order issued by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”). Cordero Frances, a native and citizen of Cuba, applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Terror (“CAT”). * Pursuant to 5th Circuit Rule 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5th Circuit Rule 47.5.4. Case: 19-60207 Document: 00515656094 Page: 2 Date Filed: 12/01/2020 No. 19-60207 The Immigration Judge (“IJ”) denied Cordero Frances’s application, the BIA dismissed her appeal of the denial, and she was removed from the United States on June 7, 2019. We GRANT the petition for review, VACATE the BIA’s decision, and REMAND with instructions to reconsider Cordero Frances’s application for asylum and protection under the CAT. I. Without any entry documents, Cordero Frances applied for admission to the United States at the El Paso Port of Entry in May 2018. The Department of Homeland Security served her with a Notice to Appear that charged her as removable because she had no valid entry documents. In her preliminary hearing before an IJ, she expressed her wish to apply for asylum. Accordingly, the IJ provided her an asylum application and explained the requirements. He informed Cordero Frances that she must prepare and attach to her asylum application “a written declaration of facts about what happened to [her] in [her] home country that forced [her] to leave or makes it impossible for [her] to return.” The IJ added that in most cases the law requires that applications be supplemented “with other reasonably available evidence,” such as affidavits from witnesses, friends, or family members who are familiar with the facts of the applicant’s case. But, the IJ clarified, “[l]etters are not sufficient.” “Because only sworn testimony is admissible in court[,] . . . . [i]t must be an affidavit.” At her subsequent merits hearing, Cordero Frances appeared pro se and submitted her application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the CAT. In support of her application, she proffered a declaration of facts in which she described decades of mistreatment— including threats, fines, beating, surveillance, and police detention—inflicted on her by the Cuban government because of her political activism. She also provided personal identification documents, publications detailing general 2 Case: 19-60207 Document: 00515656094 Page: 3 Date Filed: 12/01/2020 No. 19-60207 conditions in Cuba, and three letters from Cuban friends describing her political activism and related ...
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