NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION File Name: 19a0162n.06 Case No. 18-3618 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED Apr 01, 2019 RICHARD KOYO, ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk ) Petitioner, ) ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW v. ) FROM THE UNITED STATES ) BOARD OF IMMIGRATION WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General, ) APPEALS ) Respondent. ) BEFORE: CLAY, McKEAGUE, and WHITE, Circuit Judges. CLAY, Circuit Judge. Petitioner Richard Philemon Koyo seeks review of a final order of removal issued by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) on June 4, 2018, affirming the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of Koyo’s application for asylum, under the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”), 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b); withholding of removal, under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3)(A); and Convention Against Torture (“CAT”) protection, under 8 C.F.R. § 1208.16. For the reasons set forth below, we DENY Koyo’s petition for review. BACKGROUND Factual and Procedural History Richard Koyo is a citizen of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (“DRC”). He entered the United States through Ohio on June 7, 2006. On November 30, 2006, Koyo submitted an application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Case No. 18-3618, Koyo v. Barr Torture. Koyo appeared before an asylum officer on January 24, 2007; the asylum officer found Koyo’s testimony not credible and referred the case to an immigration judge. The Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) served Koyo with a notice to appear on January 26, 2007. Koyo admitted the factual allegations in the notice to appear, with the correction that he is a citizen of the DRC, and conceded removability. Koyo’s individual hearings began on January 20, 2011, and they continued through November 18, 2015. In addition to Koyo himself, three witnesses testified on Koyo’s behalf: Fulgence Mundende Kage, Emile Kimbagni, and Kitele Ntontolo. A. Testimony Presented at Koyo’s Hearings Koyo was born in the DRC in March of 1959. He worked as a pastor in the Mission Church. In 1997, Laurent-Désiré Kabila launched a violent overthrow of the long-reigning dictator of the DRC, Mobutu Sese Seko. Koyo initially supported Kabila as an alternative to the dictatorship and human rights violations of Mobutu. One night in 1997, Mobutu soldiers broke into Koyo’s house, beat him, beat and raped his pregnant wife, and stabbed him in the stomach. Kabila began persecuting people from Rwanda, so Koyo hid and sheltered Rwandans in his church’s basement in January 2000. Kabila soldiers came to his church, asked whether he was hiding Rwandans, ransacked his church, and severely beat him and left him in the woods. A passerby found Koyo and drove him home, but Koyo did not go to the hospital because it was not safe. In May 2002, Koyo was again targeted by Kabila’s soldiers. 1 Soldiers came to Koyo’s house looking for him, and when they could not find him they beat his wife and broke everything in his house. The soldiers threatened to return, so Koyo and his family fled and hid at ...
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