Ravinder Singh v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Ravinder Singh, a native and citizen of India, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) order dismissing his appeal from an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We grant the petition and remand to the BIA for further proceedings on an open record.

The BIA focused on two intertwined issues in affirming the IJ’s determination below: (1) despite his testimony about his active participation in the Shiro-mani Akali Dal Mann party, Singh testified that his village belonged to a parliamentary constituency that did not correspond to any of the listed constituencies on an Indian Election Commission’s list of constituencies in Punjab provided by the DHS attorney; and (2) the candidate Singh identified as the winning candidate from his constituency in the 1999 parliamentary election was not listed on the Indian Election Commission’s published candidate list for 1999 provided by the DHS attorney. The BIA also determined that the minor inconsistencies identified by the IJ, when viewed cumulatively,…