Kifle-Tesfagabir

MEMORANDUM ***

Petitioner Zerezgi Kifle-Tesfagabir (“Kifle”), a native and citizen of Eritrea, petitions for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) final order denying his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the United Nations Convention Against Torture. We review the BIA’s decision for substantial evidence, Andriasian v. INS, 180 F.3d 1033, 1040 (9th Cir.1999), and we deny the petition.

Kifle testified in support of his request for relief that his fear of persecution by the Eritrean authorities stems from his mixed Ethiopian and Eritrean background, his father’s history of working for the Ethiopian government, the Ethiopian government suspecting his father of conspiracy in helping the Eritrean government, and his father ultimately dying in an Ethiopian prison. Specifically, Kifle explained how the Ethiopian government, not the Eritrean government, arrested him twice, tortured him, and deported him to Eritrea.

The BIA reversed the IJ’s adverse credibility finding, fully credited Kifle’s testimony, but still found “that [Kifle] failed to establish that he suffered past persecution in Eritrea or has a well-founded fear of return to…