Dang

MEMORANDUM **

Tai Anh Dang is facing deportation as an aggravated felon because of a 1996 conviction for lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14. The IJ held him ineligible for asylum as an aggravated felon; for withholding of removal because his crime was “particularly serious”; and for relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) because it was not more likely than not that he would be tortured upon removal to his native country, Vietnam. After the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) summarily affirmed without opinion, Dang, represented by a new attorney, filed a motion to reopen his proceedings, alleging that his first attorney, Robert Coughlon, was constitutionally ineffective for several reasons. After the BIA denied the motion, Dang filed timely petitions for review of that denial, as well as of the agency’s earlier denial of his CAT claim. We consider both petitions here.

We review legal questions de novo and factual questions — to the extent we have jurisdiction — for substantial evidence. Mohammed v. Gonzales, 400 F.3d 785, 791-92 (9th Cir.2005) (regarding denial of motion to reopen); Zheng v. Ashcroft, 332 F.3d 1186, 1193 (9th Cir.2003) (regarding CAT…