Santos-Morales

MEMORANDUM *

Ibis Sael Santos-Morales petitions for review of a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) denying his application for asylum and withholding of deportation. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 and grant the petition for review.

Because the immigration judge found Santos-Morales credible and the BIA did not make an explicit credibility finding, “we must assume that the applicant’s factual contentions are true.” Ernesto Navas v. INS, 217 F.3d 646 , 652 n. 3 (9th Cir. 2000). We review the decision regarding Santos-Morales’s eligibility for asylum and withholding of deportation under the substantial evidence standard, meaning that we must uphold the decision “if it is supported by reasonable, substantial, and probative evidence.” Del Carmen Molina v. INS, 170 F.3d 1247, 1249 (9th Cir.1999).

Santos-Morales’s mother died when he was a young child. His father was an active member of the Union de Centro Nacional Party (“UCN”), an opposition political party in Guatemala. Santos-Morales accompanied his father to UCN meetings four or five times a week. When Santos-Morales was eleven, his father was murdered for unknown reasons. Orphaned by his father’s…