Saidou Jallow v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Saidou Jallow petitions for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) decision denying his asylum application. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 , and we deny the petition.

Substantial evidence supports the BIA’s conclusion that Jallow was not persecuted on the basis of his affirmative political beliefs or an imputed political opinion. See Sangha v. INS, 103 F.3d 1482,1487-89 (9th Cir.1997). Jallow provided no evidence that the Revolutionary United Front (“RUF”) guerillas were aware of any affirmative political views held by him, or that the guerillas’ actions were motivated in whole or in part by such views. Cf. Nuru v. Gonzales, 404 F.3d 1207, 1226 (9th Cir.2005). Jallow’s statement to the RUF guerillas that he would “never join them” is insufficient, on its own, to constitute an expression of a political opinion. See INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 481-82 , 112 S.Ct. 812 , 117 L.Ed.2d 38 (1992). Similarly, Jallow provided no evidence that the RUF imputed a political opinion to him. Rather, the record shows that the “terrible atrocities that [Jallow] and his family suffered at the hands of the ... RUF ... were ... part of the widespread…