NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 18a0148n.06 No. 17-3672 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED AMADOU SOW, ) Mar 21, 2018 ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk Petitioner, ) ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW v. ) FROM THE UNITED STATES ) BOARD OF IMMIGRATION JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS, III, Attorney General, ) APPEALS ) Respondent. ) ) ) BEFORE: MERRITT and SUTTON, Circuit Judges; CLELAND, District Judge.* CLELAND, District Judge. Amadou Sow petitions this court for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ order denying his motion to reopen his asylum proceedings. Because the Board’s decision was not an abuse of discretion, we deny the petition. I. Petitioner Sow is a native and citizen of Mauritania, an African nation. Following the expiration of his tourism visa, Sow requested asylum, 8 U.S.C. § 1158(a), withholding of removal, 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3), and relief under the United Nations Convention Against Torture. 1465 U.N.T.S. 85, G.A. Res. 39/46, 39th Sess., U.N. GA OR Supp. No. 51, at 197, U.N. Dopc. A/39/51 (1984). Sow failed to appear at his asylum interview and the Department of Homeland Security commenced removal proceedings. See U.S.C. § 1227(a)(1)(B); (A.R. 760.) * The Honorable Robert H. Cleland, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan, sitting by designation. No. 17-3672, Sow v. Sessions At his removal hearing in July of 2010, Sow testified to suffering persecution in his home country due to his ethnicity and political activities. See Sow v. Holder, 518 F. App’x 447, 448 (6th Cir. 2013). Specifically, Sow explained that he joined a political organization known as the Union of Democratic Forces (“UFD”) in Mauritania in 1992. Id. The UDF opposed the then- leader of Mauritania, President Maaoya Ould Taya. Id. Sow alleged that during a protest, armed police (the “Moors”) arrived, threw tear gas into the gathering, and arrested him. Id. The police allegedly detained him for seventy-two hours in a windowless cell with seven others. Sow testified that police interrogated him at three o’clock every morning, punched him on his right hand, called him a “nigger,” burned his hand with candles, injured his knees by making him crawl, beat his back with a truncheon, and stepped on his back. Id. After his release, Sow continued to participate with the UFD, and police continued to summon him to the station. Id. They never again physically harmed him, but they allegedly threatened him, called him names, and detained him for eight to twelve hours at a time. Id. Sow averred that this treatment lasted from 1992 until he left Mauritania to come to the United States in 2001. Id. Sow further testified that after he left Mauritania, the police continued to return to his residence and question his wife regarding his whereabouts. Id. Sow avowed that he could not return to Mauritania because of his problems with the police and the government related to his political activities. Id. If he returned, he intended to continue to participate in the UFD and oppose ...
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