Bennani

MEMORANDUM

Rachid Bennani, a native and citizen of Morocco who is a Christian convert, petitions for review of two Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) decisions. The first BIA decision, of April 27, 2005, adopted and affirmed a decision by an Immigration Judge (“IJ”) denying Bennani’s application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). In that decision, the BIA held that Bennani’s asylum application was time-barred, and that he was ineligible for withholding of removal or CAT protection because he did not face a clear probability of future persecution or torture on the basis of his religion. In the same decision, the BIA also denied a mo tion to reopen, holding that Bennani had failed to provide fresh evidence of eligibility for the “extraordinary circumstances” exception to the one-year bar on the filing of asylum applications and had failed to show that he received ineffective assistance of counsel during the earlier stages of the proceedings. The second BIA decision, of August 4, 2005, denied Bennani’s renewed motion to reopen and reconsider on the same grounds, and further held that even if Bennani were to assert a…