Stetco

MEMORANDUM

Anamaria Iona Stetco, a native and citizen of Romania, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) order dismissing her appeal of an immigration judge’s (IJ) decision denying her application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). We grant Stet-co’s petition.

1. Contrary to the government’s argument, Steteo’s petition does not present a moot question, for two reasons:

First, because we must decide whether to grant or deny Stetco’s petition based on the BIA’s own reasoning, the only issues before us are those that the BIA discussed. See Chawla v. Holder, 599 F.3d 998 (9th Cir.2010) (“We do not review [a] portion of the IJ’s decision” that “the BIA did not expressly adopt or affirm.”); Andia v. Ashcroft, 359 F.3d 1181, 1184 (9th Cir.2004) (per curiam). It is therefore irrelevant to our jurisdiction that Stetco’s petition did not challenge portions of the IJ’s decision, as the BIA did not hold that circumstance pertinent to its determination of the issue that was raised.

Second, the IJ’s discussion of country conditions was not an independent ground for denying Stetco’s application. Had Stetco…