Mesfin (not his real name) fled Ethiopia to escape political persecution.  Once he reached the United States, he filed for political asylum.  Four years, four attorneys, and thousands of dollars later, Mesfin’s journey finally came to an end when an Immigration Judge granted his application for asylum earlier this week.  “When [my claim] was denied at USCIS, I had another chance with the Immigration Judge, and when [my claim] was denied there, I had another chance with the BIA [Board of Immigration Appeals],” a happy and relieved Mesfin said in an interview the day after his asylum grant.

It is not surprising that refugees who have completed a long odyssey through the Immigration Courts would have familiarized themselves with the procedural framework of the process.  It is likewise unsurprising that such immigrants, if successful, would come to have an appreciation for the principles of due process that underlie the layered review of immigration cases.  Still, Mesfin’s conversance with these concepts is impressive.  In recounting his case, the computer science student sounded every bit the law student, using terms like “clearly erroneous” and “credibility determination” as he discussed such concepts as burden shifting and appellate posture. 

Certain items in Mesfin’s files offer other clues about the traits that made him such a ready student of the immigration system.  Mesfin’s transcript from Addis Ababa University, for instance, shows that he carried a 4.0 GPA and needed only a thesis defense to complete his master’s degree.  That thesis defense, which was to be delivered in 2005, never did get made.  The reasons for this were the same events in 2005 that prompted Mesfin’s flight from Ethiopia, a large, ethnically diverse country ruled by an authoritarian government that keeps power by pitting different ethnic groups against each.

The current Ethiopian government, which The Economist has characterized as a “hybrid regime” situated between a “flawed democracy” and an “authoritarian regime,” cracked down hard on protestors in the aftermath of contested parliamentary elections in 2005.  A government ban on protests was imposed throughout the election period, but the repression got much worse for opposition party members (including Mesfin) after the disputed results.  Police are said to have massacred 193 protestors, according to a reported prepared by a since-exiled Ethiopian judge who was appointed by the Prime Minister to investigate the killings.  More than 100 opposition leaders were arrested and charged with treason and “attempted genocide.”  Hundreds more rank-and-file opposition party members on college campuses – including Mesfin – were arrested for mobilizing political opposition to protest the election results, which they regarded as fraudulent. 

He was detained for eight days and was interrogated, beaten, threatened, deprived of sleep, denied food and medicine, and held incommunicado – without the opportunity to consult an attorney and without word to his family about his whereabouts. 

“The prison cell I was in was filled with many prisoners,” he would later say. “[At night], they would wake me up and splash me with dirty water for sleep deprivation and mental torture.  [During] interrogation, the investigators warned me that my life would be taken because of links with anti-government bodies….  I was denied bail rights and court appearances since there was no evidence of wrong doing.  I was not charged with any crime.  But still, I was kept in jail and abused.  I got no justice or due process of law.”

Mesfin was released from his illegal detention after eight days, and only after a previously released cellmate contacted his cousin who arranged an expensive bribe that secured his release.  It was then that he resolved to flee the country to avoid further persecution.  The sense of urgency that fueled that decision was evidenced by the fact that he felt compelled to depart within weeks of release – and just two weeks before the 4.0 student was scheduled to defend his thesis.

But the hastiness of his escape would later make things difficult, Mesfin said, noting that the initial rejections of his asylum claim by USCIS officials and the Immigration Judge were based in part on a lack of documentary evidence to corroborate his account of being beaten and jailed.  “All you are thinking about is leaving,” he explained.  “You’re not thinking about the documents you’ll need” to later make an asylum claim.  And even if he was thinking ahead and about those matters, “I didn’t know any lawyers [in Ethiopia] who could tell me” what was needed.  Fortunately for him, Mesfin was finally able to convince the U.S. government that he needed protection.  Now, after four years, he hopes to return to school and begin his life again.