United States Ninth Circuit

Petition for review of a denial of am application for asylum based on petitioner's membership in a Senegalese political organization, as well as related relief, is granted in part and remanded as to the asylum claim where the IJ erred in finding that: 1) petitioner failed to qualify for the "changed circumstances" exception to the one-year bar on filing asylum claims; and, alternatively, 2) petitioner could reasonably relocate to another part of the country.

Appellate Information

• Argued 11/06/2007
• Decided 05/05/2008
• Published 05/05/2008

Judges

• BERZON, Circuit Judge:, Before:  EDWARD LEAVY, RAYMOND C. FISHER, and MARSHA S. BERZON, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Philip James Smith, Hecht & Smith, LLP, Portland, OR, for the petitioner.


• For Appellees:
  
• Karin J. Immergut, United States Attorney for the District of Oregon, and William E. Fitzgerald and Kelly A. Zusman, Assistant United States Attorneys, Portland, OR, for the respondent.