Salti

MEMORANDUM *

Yazan Salti, an ethnic Palestinian from Syria, has filed a petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’s (“BIA”) summary affirmance of the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) order denying him withholding of removal and relief under Article 3 of the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). Salti argues that he will be persecuted on account of being a disabled person who is unable to complete compulsory military service in Syria, on account of his Palestinian ethnicity, and on account of an imputed political opinion of disloyalty for having failed to join the Ba’ath Party. Salti also contends that he will be tortured if he is returned to Syria. Because the BIA summarily affirmed the IJ, we review the IJ’s decision as if it were the decision of the BIA. See Thomas v. Ashcroft, 359 F.3d 1169, 1174 (9th Cir.2004).

Withholding of removal requires Salti to show a “clear probability” that he will be persecuted on account of a protected ground if he returns to Syria. See Duarte de Guinac v. INS, 179 F.3d 1156, 1159 (9th Cir.1999). The BIA’s denial of *3 withholding of removal can only be reversed if a reasonable fact finder would be compelled to find that there was a clear…