Ghanem, a former lawful permanent resident of the United States, sought to avoid removal to Yemen, from which he fled. He pursued three forms of relief that the Immigration Judge (IJ) and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) denied:1) asylum under the Immigration and Nationality Act, 2) withholding of removal under the Act, and 3) withholding of removal under the Convention Against Torture. Ghanem was kidnapped and tortured before being convicted and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment for political opposition to the Houthi regime. The Third Circuit granted Ghanem’s petition for review and remanded it to the BIA. The Court found that: 1) The BIA’s determination that there is no indication that Ghanem was targeted on account of his political opinion was utterly unsupported by the record.; 2) The BIA erroneously treated Ghanem’s familial relation to his persecutors as disqualifying where a protected ground was also one main reason for the persecution; and 3) the evidence directly contradicted the BIA’s conclusions that Ghanem is not likely to be tortured with the government’s acquiescence if returned to Yemen.
