Cortez-Guevara

MEMORANDUM **

Petition to Review a Decision of the Immigration and Naturalization Service

We find insufficient evidence in the record to support the Board of Immigration Appeal’s (“BIA’s”) decision and therefore reverse its denial of Ely Nilson Cortez-Guevara’s application for asylum. As the parties are familiar with the factual and procedural history of this case, we do not recount them here.

1. The BIA improperly faulted the IJ for relying on a “single vague threat” as evidence of persecution. Cortez-Guevara, a citizen of El Salvador, described the threat with reasonable specificity, and the IJ fully credited his testimony. He identified what *729 his assailants planned to do (kill him), why they planned to do it (as retribution for his family’s role in the civil war), and even when they planned to carry it out (at the first available opportunity). The BIA did not reverse the IJ’s credibility finding but discounted the threat because it came only once. That the threat occurred a single time does not, however, render Mr. Cortez-Guevara’s fear any less reasonable. Arteaga v. INS, 836 F.2d 1227, 1233 (9th Cir.1988); see also Ernesto Navas v. INS, 217 F.3d 646, 658 (9th…