Case: 18-14730 Date Filed: 03/05/2020 Page: 1 of 17 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 18-14730 Non-Argument Calendar ________________________ Agency No. A216-272-066 XIUYUN ZHENG, Petitioner, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ________________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals ________________________ (March 5, 2020) Before MARTIN, JILL PRYOR and NEWSOM, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Xiuyun Zheng, a native and citizen of China proceeding pro se, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) final order affirming the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of her application for asylum, withholding of Case: 18-14730 Date Filed: 03/05/2020 Page: 2 of 17 removal, and relief under the United Nations Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). She challenges the BIA’s adverse credibility determination, its denial of her claim of political persecution related to China’s one-child policy, and its denial of her applications for withholding of removal and CAT relief. After careful review, we grant her petition for review and remand to the BIA for further proceedings. I. Zheng entered the United States without valid entry documents. The Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) issued a notice to appear, charging her as removable as an immigrant without a valid entry document upon admission. See Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) § 212(a)(7)(A)(i)(I), 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(7)(A)(i)(I). Zheng admitted the allegations in the notice to appear and conceded removability. A. Application for asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT protection Zheng applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under CAT. She claimed religious persecution for her attendance of a Christian church and political persecution for her violation of China’s one-child policy. She alleged that she “was arrested, detained and beaten by the Chinese government because [she] 2 Case: 18-14730 Date Filed: 03/05/2020 Page: 3 of 17 attended Christian underground church” and that “[b]ecause [she] had [an] extra baby, [she] was accused of violating the family planning policy.” AR at 176.1 Zheng attached several documents to her application, including a personal statement, letters from her husband and a neighbor, and notices from her local village committee reporting her arrest for religious activity. Zheng’s personal statement described the harm she suffered on the basis of her religion and political opinion. She claimed that she converted to Christianity and began attending an underground worship group in October 2017. Later that month, she was attending a Bible study at a private home when seven police officers broke into the house and arrested her and the other congregants. She was taken to an interrogation room, where she was slapped, beaten, kicked, and mocked for her faith. She was then detained for approximately 11 days, during which time she was deprived of food. Eventually her husband, Shunfa Yi, paid her bail and she was released, but only after she was forced to write a “guarantee letter” promising to “draw a clear line between [herself] and the evil cult” or otherwise be “sen[t] directly into prison.” Id. at 188. Upon her release, she was ...
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals