Rodriguez-Mata-Moros

Indiana Rodríguez-Matamoros and her two minor daughters, natives and citizens of Nicaragua, petition for review of the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), denying their applications for asylum and withholding of deportation under 8 U.S.C. §§ 1158 (a), 1253(h). 1 We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1105a(a). We conclude that Rodriguez has demonstrated past persecution and remand to the BIA for a determination of whether she is entitled to asylum as a matter of discretion.

I

The Immigration Judge (IJ) found that Rodriguez testified credibly, and the BIA made no findings of its own. Therefore the following is taken as true. Rodriguez and her family were supporters of former Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza. Two of Rodriguez’s sisters were members of Somoza’s National Guard and two other sisters worked for the Somoza government. In 1979, Sandinistas came to the Rodriguez home and dragged one of Rodriguez’s sisters, Candida, a member of the National Guard, out of bed. The Sandinistas took her away from the house and tortured her. Candida managed to escape temporarily, but the Sandinistas pursued her back to the house, where they shot and killed her in front of…