NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit Chicago, Illinois 60604 Submitted September 2, 2020* Decided September 9, 2020 Before DAVID F. HAMILTON, Circuit Judge MICHAEL B. BRENNAN, Circuit Judge AMY J. ST. EVE, Circuit Judge No. 20-1193 NFOR GIBSON TATA TANDAP, Petition for Review of Orders from the Petitioner, Board of Immigration Appeals. v. No. A097-333-108 WILLIAM P. BARR Attorney General of the United States, Respondent. ORDER Nfor Gibson Tata Tandap, an Anglophone citizen of Cameroon, challenges the denial of his motion to reopen his removal proceedings to seek asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture. He sought reopening based on a material change in country conditions since his last hearing—namely the conflict between Anglophone Cameroonians and the Francophone majority that had killed thousands of Anglophone citizens and led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands more. The Board of Immigration Appeals denied the motion, finding that * We have agreed to decide the case without oral argument because the briefs and record adequately present the facts and legal arguments, and oral argument would not significantly aid the court. FED. R. APP. P. 34(a)(2)(C). No. 20-1193 Page 2 Tandap had demonstrated changed conditions but did not submit enough evidence to show that he would be singled out for harm if returned. Tandap has petitioned for review, asserting that the Board applied the wrong legal standard, ignored evidence, and failed to acknowledge his claim for relief under the Convention Against Torture. Because the Board abused its discretion by denying Tandap’s motion to reopen, we grant the petition for review, vacate the order, and remand for further proceedings. Tandap’s proceedings have a protracted history which are reviewed here only in part. He entered the United States in 1992 on a student visa and overstayed. A decade later he married a United States citizen. In 2006, the government placed him in removal proceedings. The notice to appear charged him with remaining in the country longer than his visa permitted, see 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(1)(B), and committing two crimes of moral turpitude after his admission. See 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(ii). Tandap applied to adjust his status based on his marriage, see 8 U.S.C. § 1255(a), and an immigration judge granted the application. But the government, upon learning that Tandap had lied about a recent arrest, persuaded the Board to reopen the proceedings. The IJ then held additional hearings, denied Tandap’s application to adjust his status as a matter of discretion, and ordered him removed; the Board upheld the decision. Because decisions over adjustment of status are discretionary, we dismissed Tandap’s petition for lack of jurisdiction. Tandap v. Holder, 436 Fed. App’x. 718 (7th Cir. 2011). In 2019, Tandap moved to reopen the proceedings based on the increasing violence towards Anglophone Cameroonians. See 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c)(2),(3)(ii). He supplemented his motion with an expert report by Dr. Charlotte Walker-Said, an Africana Studies scholar at the ...
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