Gamalie

MEMORANDUM **

1. Both the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) and the Immigration Judge (IJ) properly denied Mariana Gamalie’s and her family’s (collectively Gamalie) applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. Although Gamalie testified that, as a successful business owner, party officials demanded bribes, pressured her to post party propaganda in her store, and allegedly confiscated a year’s worth of profit related to the sale of alcohol, tobacco, and coffee, the record does not reflect evidence of sufficient economic harm to constitute past persecution under the Refugee Act. See Navas v. INS, 217 F.3d 646, 655-56 (9th Cir.2000). Gamalie’s testimony revealed that virtually all business owners were subject to coercive government practices including harassment and bribes. Neither Gamalie nor her family were physically harmed in any manner, and Gamalie was able to successfully liquidate her business before returning to the United States to live.

The evidence of financial harm in this case does not rise to the level of economic persecution we have required in other cases to justify asylum. See Baballah v. Ashcroft, 367 F.3d…