Shire

MEMORANDUM *

Badel Guled Shire, a native and citizen of Somalia, petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) summarily affirming the immigration judge’s (“IJ”) decision denying his application for asylum, withholding of removal and relief under the Convention Against Torture. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We review the BIA’s decision under the substantial evidence standard, Wang v. Ashcroft, 341 F.3d 1015, 1019-20 (9th Cir.2003), and we grant the petition for review. Because the parties are familiar with the factual and procedural history of the case, we will not recount it here. Because the IJ found Shire credible, we consider all facts from his testimony as true, including any reasonable inferences drawn from those facts. Zheng v. Ashcroft, 332 F.3d 1186, 1189 (9th Cir.2003).

Shire does not claim that he suffered past persecution; therefore, he is not entitled to a presumption of a well-founded fear of persecution on account of a protected ground. In this case, his fear of future persecution is based, not so much on an individualized fear, but on a “group-based risk of persecution.” See Lolong v. Gonzales, 400 F.3d 1215,…

dissenting.

I respectfully dissent.

The decision to deny asylum or withholding of removal is reviewed under a deferential substantial evidence standard. Njuguna v. Ashcroft, 374 F.3d 765, 769 (9th Cir.2004). This standard limits reversals of BIA decisions to situations where the “Petitioner presented evidence ‘so compelling that no reasonable fact finder could find’ that Petitioner has not estab *688 lished eligibility for asylum.” Ali v. Ashcroft, 394 F.3d 780 (9th Cir.2005) (quoting Singh v. INS, 134 F.3d 962, 966 (9th Cir.1998)).

In this case, the BIA summarily affirmed the IJ’s decision to deny asylum and withholding of removal. The IJ observed that the documentation Shire presented (letters from individuals who wrote on Shire’s behalf) was only marginally helpful to sustain his burden of proof regarding his date of arrival in the U.S. and his Somalian citizenship. Moreover, the letters contained no information about the nature and circumstances of Shire’s life in Somalia or the reasons why he left the country. Additionally, Shire could not provide any reason why he believed his father and uncle were lolled by a rival clan, other than the fact that the clan was known to be…