NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION File Name: 18a0495n.06 Case No. 18-3095 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED Oct 04, 2018 MAHAMADOU ALHOUSSEINI, ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk ) Petitioner-Appellant, ) ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW v. ) FROM THE UNITED STATES ) BOARD OF IMMIGRATION JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS, III, Attorney ) APPEALS General, ) ) Respondent-Appellee. ) BEFORE: BATCHELDER, DONALD, and THAPAR, Circuit Judges. THAPAR, Circuit Judge. Sometimes things get lost in translation. At least that is what Mahamadou Alhousseini claims happened at his asylum hearing. He says that when the interpreter said he was a member of a rebel group, the interpreter misunderstood him. And when he detailed the machine guns and the rocket launchers that he helped purchase—that, too, was just a misunderstanding. As such, he petitions for relief from the Board of Immigration Appeals order mandating his removal from the country. But because the evidence suggests the interpreter correctly represented what Alhousseini said, we deny his petition. Case No. 18-3095, Alhousseini v. Sessions I. Mahamadou Alhousseini is a native of Niger. After overstaying his tourist visa, he applied for asylum. He said the Niger government police “arrested, beat[], molested, [and] tortured” him because of his Touareg ethnicity. After Alhousseini submitted his application, an asylum officer interviewed him. Alhousseini did not speak English, and he could not find a Touareg interpreter. So he hired a French interpreter for the interview instead. During the interview, Alhousseini said that the police came after him because he served as a member of the Air and Azaouak Liberation Front (FLAA). The FLAA was a Touareg rebel group that fought the government of Niger in the early 1990s, killing both government soldiers and civilians. He stated that he was elected as Information Secretary, and he toured the countryside raising money. The money was put toward weapons and gear—“Kalashnikovs [machine guns], rocket launchers, jeeps, [and] 4x4s.” After the leader of the rebellion (who later became a government minister) fell out of favor with the government, Alhousseini was arrested. Since the FLAA was considered an undesignated terror group, the asylum officer concluded he was likely ineligible for asylum because he assisted with persecution and engaged in terrorist activity. But, for reasons unclear in the record, the government did not act on Alhousseini’s asylum application for four years. The Department of Homeland Security eventually commenced removal proceedings against Alhousseini. In response, Alhousseini withdrew his asylum application and applied for a change in status to lawful permanent resident. Over the course of his hearing before the Immigration Judge (spread out over two sessions), Alhousseini told a different story about his time in Niger. This time, he said that he was not a member of the FLAA and that his interpreter must have misunderstood him before. In fact, Alhousseini says he was part of a different group, -2- Case No. 18-3095, Alhousseini v. Sessions Jeunesse Touareg. This group provides school materials and educational assistance to Touareg communities in Niger—a stark contrast from the FLAA’s ...
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals