Joseph-Othoman

MEMORANDUM *

Eddy Joseph-Othoman petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) decision affirming the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of his asylum application. He contends that the IJ abused her discretion by concluding that there was insufficient objective evidence to substantiate a well-founded fear of persecution. Petitioner argues that the killing of his father by members of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (“UNITA”), the disappearance of his family shortly after the killing, and the ransacking of his home establish facts that would cause a reasonable person to fear persecution. Although UNITA insurgents apparently killed Joseph-Othoman’s father in the course of stealing the government-owned truck he was driving, together with its cargo, there was no evidence as to the identity of the looters of the family home.

When the BIA affirms the IJ’s decision without opinion, we review the IJ’s decision as the final agency action. Kebede v. Ashcroft, 366 F.3d 808, 809 (9th Cir.2004). To conclude that the IJ erred in her findings, “we must find that the evidence not only supports that conclusion, but campéis it.” INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502…