Filed: Mar. 10, 2008
Latest Update: Feb. 12, 2020
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 07-1226 WONSEH MANGO ZOE, Petitioner, v. MICHAEL B. MUKASEY, Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. (A98-544-571) Submitted: February 22, 2008 Decided: March 10, 2008 Before MICHAEL and DUNCAN, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge. Petition denied by unpublished per curiam opinion. David Goren, LAW OFFICE OF DAVID GOREN, Silver Spring, Maryland, for P
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 07-1226 WONSEH MANGO ZOE, Petitioner, v. MICHAEL B. MUKASEY, Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. (A98-544-571) Submitted: February 22, 2008 Decided: March 10, 2008 Before MICHAEL and DUNCAN, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge. Petition denied by unpublished per curiam opinion. David Goren, LAW OFFICE OF DAVID GOREN, Silver Spring, Maryland, for Pe..
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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 07-1226
WONSEH MANGO ZOE,
Petitioner,
v.
MICHAEL B. MUKASEY, Attorney General,
Respondent.
On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration
Appeals. (A98-544-571)
Submitted: February 22, 2008 Decided: March 10, 2008
Before MICHAEL and DUNCAN, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior
Circuit Judge.
Petition denied by unpublished per curiam opinion.
David Goren, LAW OFFICE OF DAVID GOREN, Silver Spring, Maryland,
for Petitioner. Peter D. Keisler, Assistant Attorney General, M.
Jocelyn Lopez Wright, Assistant Director, Stacey I. Young, Office
of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT
OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
PER CURIAM:
Wonseh Mango Zoe, a native and citizen of Liberia,
petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration
Appeals (“Board”) dismissing her appeal from the immigration
judge’s ruling denying her asylum, withholding of removal, and
protection under the Convention Against Torture.* We deny the
petition for review.
Zoe challenges the immigration judge’s ruling that she
failed to prove her claim of past persecution. She does not
challenge the Board’s ruling that, regardless of whether she
suffered past persecution, “[t]here has been a fundamental change
in circumstances such that the applicant no longer has a well-
founded fear of persecution” in Liberia. 8 C.F.R.
§ 1208.13(b)(1)(i)(A) (2007). We conclude that the Board’s denial
of relief based on this provision is not manifestly contrary to law
or an abuse of discretion. 8 U.S.C.A. § 1252(b)(4)(D) (West 2005).
Zoe also argues that she was entitled to humanitarian
relief under 8 C.F.R. § 1208.13(b)(iii)(A) (2007). Our precedent
reserves eligibility for this type of asylum “for the most
atrocious abuse,” “where past persecution is so severe that it
would be inhumane to return the alien even in the absence of any
*
Zoe’s brief does not challenge the denial of withholding of
removal or protection under the Convention Against Torture.
Therefore, she has waived the issues on appeal. See Edwards v.
City of Goldsboro,
178 F.3d 231, 241 n.6 (4th Cir. 1999) (noting
that issues not briefed or argued are deemed abandoned).
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risk of further persecution.” Gonahasa v. INS,
181 F.3d 538, 544
(4th Cir. 1999). As the court observed in Naizgi v. Gonzales,
455
F.3d 484, 488 (4th Cir. 2006), “[o]ur decisions have been true to
this narrow construction,” citing Ngarurih v. Ashcroft,
371 F.3d
182, 189-91 (4th Cir. 2004) (alien interrogated under threat of
death, held for a week in a dark cement cell flooded at intervals
with cold water, and imprisoned for months in solitary confinement
did not qualify); Rusu v. INS,
296 F.3d 316, 318, 325 (4th Cir.
2002) (alien interrogated, assaulted and tortured by means
including removal of his teeth with pliers and a screwdriver did
not qualify). The court in
Ngarurih, 371 F.3d at 190, cited with
approval the decision in Bucur v. INS,
109 F.3d 399, 405 (7th Cir.
1997), which described the humanitarian asylum regulation as
“designed for the case of the German Jews, the victims of the
Chinese ‘Cultural Revolution,’ survivors of the Cambodian genocide,
and a few other such extreme cases.” The abuse described by Zoe,
though deplorable, does not reach this level. Therefore, the Board
did not err in denying asylum under this provision.
We deny Zoe’s petition for review. We dispense with oral
argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately
presented in the materials before the court and argument would not
aid the decisional process.
PETITION DENIED
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