Tifow

MEMORANDUM *

I.

Petitioner Ali Osman Tifow is a native of Somalia. He claims to be a member of the minority Madhiban clan, and says that members of the dominant Hawiye clan and its armed militia, the United Somali Congress (“USC”), attacked him and his family on two occasions, first murdering his father and later his brother and sister. Tifow entered the United States without inspection and applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). After initially indicating that Tifow was credible in a tentative oral decision, an immigration judge (“I J”) changed her mind and denied relief in a written order, ordering Tifow removed to Somalia. The Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirmed, and Tifow timely petitioned for review. We deny the petition.

II.

Before we discuss the merits of Tifow’s petition, we must briefly address the IJ’s unusual decision to abandon her oral decision. The change of course was troubling for a few reasons. First, the oral decision ends in mid-sentence, with no indication of why it stopped. The written decision does nothing to illuminate the IJ’s thought process, as it does not refer to the oral…