Phonekeo

MEMORANDUM **

Khamviliane Phonekeo petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) order adopting and affirming Immigration Judge Dayna Beamer’s (“IJ”) denial of Ms. Phonekeo’s application for asylum. 1 Ms. Phonekeo argues that the IJ erred in determining that she had failed to establish past persecution on account of her membership in a particular social group or for an imputed political opinion. Consequently, Ms. Phonekeo also maintains the IJ erred when she did not require the Government to rebut the presumption that Ms. Phonekeo held a well-founded fear of future persecution. We grant the petition for review because we conclude that the IJ failed to make specific findings regarding past persecution.

I

Ms. Phonekeo applied for asylum in 1992. She was ordered into removal proceedings on May 30, 2003, based on her concession that she had been admitted to the United States in 1990, but remained beyond the time allowed by her nonimmigrant temporary visitor visa, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1227 (a)(1)(B). The basis of her asylum application was that she had suffered past persecution on account of her membership in a particular social group consisting of teachers…