RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION Pursuant to Sixth Circuit I.O.P. 32.1(b) File Name: 21a0269p.06 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT ┐ JONAS NSONGI MBONGA, │ Petitioner, │ > No. 20-4268 │ v. │ │ MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, │ Respondent. │ ┘ On Petition for Review from the Board of Immigration Appeals. No. A 215 913 759. Argued: October 21, 2021 Decided and Filed: November 22, 2021 Before: McKEAGUE, NALBANDIAN, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges. _________________ COUNSEL ARGUED: Austin N. Davis, BAKER & HOSTETLER LLP, Cleveland, Ohio, for Petitioner. John F. Stanton, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. ON BRIEF: Austin N. Davis, Michael E. Mumford, BAKER & HOSTETLER LLP, Cleveland, Ohio, for Petitioner. John F. Stanton, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. _________________ OPINION _________________ MURPHY, Circuit Judge. The immigration laws give the Attorney General discretion to grant asylum to “refugees”—a term that includes those who have suffered persecution in their home countries because of their political beliefs. Exercising this discretion, the Attorney General has instructed immigration judges that they generally should deny asylum to refugees No. 20-4268 Nsongi Mbonga v. Garland Page 2 who have suffered past persecution if changed conditions in their countries make future persecution unlikely. 8 C.F.R. § 1208.13(b)(1)(i)(A). This case requires us to consider the type of evidence that permits the Board of Immigration Appeals to find these disqualifying changed country conditions. Even though Jonas Nsongi Mbonga previously suffered political persecution in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Board of Immigration Appeals denied him asylum because his own political party had since assumed power in the country. The Board reasoned that this change in the government made any future political persecution unlikely. Nsongi Mbonga argues that this generic evidence about a national governmental change did not suffice and that the Board needed to rely on specific evidence tailored to his local situation. His argument gets things backwards under our caselaw. The Board can find a disqualifying change in conditions using general evidence showing that the political party that persecuted a refugee has lost power, which shifts the burden to the refugee to identify specific evidence proving that persecution still remains likely. Because Nsongi Mbonga did not present such evidence, we deny his petition for review. I Nsongi Mbonga fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo under trying circumstances. While living in the country’s capital, he joined an athletic club that practiced jujitsu. This club had connections with the Congo’s then-ruling political party, the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Development. The club’s leaders recruited Nsongi Mbonga to join a youth group for this ruling party in October 2013. These leaders allegedly planned to use this youth group to disrupt peaceful protests by the opposition party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress. Finding this plan unjust, Nsongi Mbonga refused to participate. Nsongi Mbonga instead decided to join the opposition party because of its political platform favoring equality and nonviolence. He began to attend this opposition party’s demonstrations …
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