Ghazarian

MEMORANDUM **

Mariros Ghazarian, a native and citizen of Armenia, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) summary affirmance of an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of his application for asylum and withholding of removal. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We grant the petition for review in part, deny it in part, and remand for further proceedings.

Ghazarian’s due process and regulatory challenges to the BIA’s streamlining of his case are foreclosed. See Garcia-Martinez v. Ashcroft, 371 F.3d 1066, 1078-79 (9th Cir.2004).

The IJ concluded that Ghazarian was “not abus[ed] ... because of the respondent’s political opinion, but because he [became] a nuisance.” While “retaliation completely untethered to a governmental system does not afford a basis for asylum ... many persecutors have mixed motives. In such instances, personal retaliation against a vocal political opponent does not render the opposition any less political, or the opponent any less deserving of asylum.” Grava v. INS, 205 F.3d 1177 , 1181 n. 3 (9th Cir.2000); see also Lim v. INS, 224 F.3d 929, 934 (9th Cir.2000) (“the threats to Lim are accurately viewed as ‘revenge plus’ —…