Congolese woman receives reprieve

The Board of Immigration Appeals has reopened Regina Bakala's asylum case. She may reapply for asylum, this time based on her husband's circumstances.

A key reason the board decided there were grounds to reopen her case was that David Bakala's immigration case was somewhat similar.

In 2004, David Bakala was granted a "withholding of removal" - though not asylum, which he is still seeking - by an immigration judge who determined that he could be persecuted if he returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo. (David Bakala, 52, had been involved in a group called the National Council of Resistance for Democracy, according to court documents.)

According to the board, Regina Bakala had shown enough evidence that she might be persecuted because of her husband's political affiliation that another look at her case was warranted.

The Board did not appear to have been persuaded that the adverse result in her own prior asylum case was unjust.

The board's decision, however, expressed misgivings about some of her previous testimony because it appeared inconsistent and out of order.