Zeferino Mendez-Gutierrez v. John Ashcroft, Attorney General

Zeferino Mendez-Gutierrez petitions for review of the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) dismissing his appeal of the Immigration Judge (“IJ”)’s refusal to reinstate his voluntarily withdrawn asylum application. We hold that we have jurisdiction to review the decision of the BIA, and that the BIA abused its discretion by failing to address Mendez-Gutierrez’s claim of a well-founded fear of future persecution before concluding that he had not established a pri-ma facie case of eligibility for asylum.

Factual and Procedural Background

Mendez-Gutierrez is a native and citizen of Mexico who entered the United States without inspection in December 1989. In February 1997, he filed an application for asylum, alleging that he had been persecuted in Mexico by the Mexican Federal Police and the then-ruling party, the Parti-do Revolucionario Institucional (“PRI”), because he was a member of the opposition party, the Partido Acción Nacional (“PAN”). Mendez-Gutierrez claimed that he was harassed and threatened because his opinions about the government differed from those of the PRI. According to Mendez-Gutierrez, the federal police repeatedly came to his home and…