Second Circuit Vacates and Remands Togolese Citizen’s Asylum Claim

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Baba v. Holder vacated a Board of Immigration Appeals ruling that a Togolese citizen had the burden of proving he feared future persecution because he retained his government job, despite having allegedly endured daily beatings and nearly starved to death in prison.

Biyalo Watara Baba, a member of the Togolese Union for Democracy, fled to the United States in 2004. He sought asylum based on persecution on account of his affiliation with the opposition political party and participation in demonstrations against the 38-year regime of Togo’s President Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who died in 2005. The immigration appeals board, erroneously found the “harsh treatment Baba testified to did not constitute persecution,” and “also failed to give Baba the benefit or a presumption of a well-founded fear of prosecution,” the Second Circuit concluded:  “If the burden had been properly placed on the government to show that, by reason of changed country circumstances, any fear Baba had of future persecution was not well-founded, we think that the points made by the [Immigration Judge] were insufficient to carry that burden.”

Judge Pierre N. Leval wrote for the court and was hoined by Judges Joseph M. McLaughlin and Rosemary S. Pooler.  For more details, click here and the link to the opinion above.

KJ