Berishaj V. Ashcroft

Lek Berishaj, an ethnic Albanian from Montenegro, petitions for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which affirmed without opinion the decision of an immigration judge (IJ) denying him asylum and relief under the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT). Under our caselaw, see Dia v. Ashcroft, 353 F.3d 228 (3d Cir. 2003) ( en banc ), it is the IJ's decision that we review, no mean task here because the IJ's opinion is cursory, thinly reasoned, and discusses the case without any reference to the governing legal standards. Nonetheless, we understand the IJ to have concluded that Berishaj's testimony regarding past persecution was not credible; that, even taking Berishaj's testimony as true, country conditions in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (which embraced Montenegro at the time of the IJ's decision) had changed such that Berishaj could no longer have a well-founded fear of future persecution; and that Berishaj's CAT claim failed because there was no objective evidence that a return to Montenegro would expose him to torture.