Perez-Trujillo v. Garland ( 2021 )

United States Court of Appeals
For the First Circuit
No. 11-1481
NESTOR ARAMIZ PEREZ-TRUJILLO,
Petitioner,
v.
MERRICK B. GARLAND,*
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL,
Respondent.
No. 17-1586
NESTOR ARAMIZ PEREZ-TRUJILLO,
Petitioner,
v.
MERRICK B. GARLAND,*
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL,
Respondent.
PETITIONS FOR REVIEW OF ORDERS OF THE
BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS
* Pursuant to Fed. R. App. P. 43(c)(2), Attorney General
Merrick B. Garland has been substituted for former Attorney General
Eric H. Holder, Jr.
* Pursuant to Fed. R. App. P. 43(c)(2), Attorney General
Merrick B. Garland has been substituted for former Attorney General
Jefferson B. Sessions III.
Before
Howard, Chief Judge,
Thompson and Barron, Circuit Judges.
Gregory Romanovsky and SangYeob Kim, with whom Gilles
Bissonnette, Romanovsky Law Offices, and American Civil Liberties
Union of New Hampshire were on brief, for petitioner.
Jonathan Robbins, Senior Litigation Counsel, Office of
Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, United States Department
of Justice, with whom Jeffrey Bossert Clark, Acting Assistant
Attorney General, Civil Division, and Anthony P. Nicastro,
Assistant Director, Office of Immigration Litigation, were on
brief, for respondent.
Nancy Kelly and John Willshire-Carrera on brief for Greater
Boston Legal Services, amicus curiae.
Deirdre M. Giblin on brief for Massachusetts Law Reform
Institute, amicus curiae.
June 28, 2021
BARRON, Circuit Judge. At issue are Nestor Perez-
Trujillo's petitions for review of two decisions by the Board of
Immigration Appeals ("BIA"): its 2011 ruling affirming the denial
of his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and
protection under the Convention Against Torture ("CAT"); and its
2017 ruling reversing the grant of his application for adjustment
of status. We deny his 2011 petition and grant his 2017 petition.
I.
Perez-Trujillo is a native of El Salvador who came to
the United States on May 17, 2007, when he was thirteen years old.
He was apprehended close to the U.S. border by immigration
authorities and, on May 19, 2007, was issued a Notice to Appear
for removal proceedings.
Perez-Trujillo timely filed on May 6 of the following
year an application for asylum, 8 U.S.C. § 1158,1 and requested
1"The Secretary of Homeland Security or the Attorney General
may grant asylum to an alien who has applied for asylum in
accordance with the requirements and procedures established by the
Secretary of Homeland Security or the Attorney General under this
section if the Secretary of Homeland Security or the Attorney
General determines that such alien is a refugee . . . ." 8 U.S.C.
§ 1158(b)(1)(A). A "refugee" for these purposes is defined as
"any person who is outside any country of such person's
nationality . . . and who is unable or unwilling to return to, and
is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the
protection of, that country because of persecution or a well-
founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion,
nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
opinion." Id. § 1101(a)(42)(A).
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withholding of removal, id. § 1231(b)(3),2 and relief from removal
under the CAT, as implemented by 8 C.F.R. § 1208.16-.18. Perez-
Trujillo indicated in doing so that he sought asylum and
withholding of removal on the grounds of "political opinion" and
"membership in a particular social group." 8 U.S.C.
§ 1101(a)(42)(A); id. § 1231(b)(3)(A).
Testifying at his removal proceedings in Boston,
Massachusetts, on April 16, 2009, Perez-Trujillo stated, among
other things, that he had endured several violent encounters in El
Salvador with members of the gang MS-13. He testified that gang
members had, through violent beatings, forced him to join their
ranks; that, when he resisted their orders, gang members responded
with further violence; that gang members came looking for him after
they heard he had spoken to the police; and that, as he made plans
to leave the country and even after he came to the United States,
gang members continued to search for him. He also testified that
he feared that he would be killed by members of the gang if he
returned to El Salvador. To further support his arguments in
support of asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under
2 Subject to exceptions not relevant here, "the Attorney
General may not remove an alien to a country if the Attorney
General decides that the alien's life or freedom would be
threatened in that country because of the alien's race, religion,
nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
opinion." 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3)(A).
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the CAT, Perez-Trujillo also submitted a number of reports and
articles concerning conditions in El Salvador.
The immigration judge ordered Perez-Trujillo's removal
after denying his application for asylum as well as his request
for withholding of removal and protection under the CAT. Perez-
Trujillo appealed that ruling to the BIA, and the BIA upheld the
order of removal in April 2011. Perez-Trujillo thereafter filed
a petition for review from that decision in this Court. We heard
oral argument in September 2012.
While Perez-Trujillo was challenging his removal on the
grounds just described, he also filed a petition for a "special
immigrant" visa. See 8 U.S.C. §§ 1101(a)(27)(J), 1153(b)(4).3
Such a visa makes one eligible to apply for adjustment of status
-- a process through which the Attorney General may make a
discretionary determination to adjust a noncitizen's status to
that of a lawfully admitted permanent resident. Id. § 1255(a),
(h).
The Immigration and Nationality Act provides that the term
3
"special immigrant" includes one who, among other things, "has
been declared dependent on a juvenile court located in the United
States . . . and whose reunification with 1 or both of the
immigrant's parents is not viable due to abuse, neglect,
abandonment, or a similar basis found under State law" and "for
whom it has been determined in administrative or judicial
proceedings that it would not be in the alien's best interest to
be returned to the alien's or parent's previous country of
nationality or country of last habitual residence." 8 U.S.C.
§ 1101(a)(27)(J)(i)-(ii). "Certain special immigrants" are
eligible for a particular pool of visas. See id. § 1153(b)(4).
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Following oral argument in our Court on Perez-Trujillo's
2011 petition and while it was still pending with us, the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security ("DHS") granted Perez-Trujillo's
application for a special immigrant visa on October 1, 2012.
Accordingly, on November 1, 2013, we remanded his 2011 petition to
the BIA, while retaining jurisdiction over it, so that Perez-
Trujillo could seek adjustment of status or administrative
closure.
On March 23, 2016, a new immigration judge granted Perez-
Trujillo's application for adjustment of status, finding that,
after balancing "all of the negative and positive factors" in his
case, "the scale tip[ped] in [his] favor." The government then
appealed that ruling to the BIA, which reversed it on May 12, 2017.
The BIA concluded that Perez-Trujillo had "not shown sufficient
equities to overcome his criminal history." Perez-Trujillo filed
a petition for review of the BIA's ruling in our Court on June 6,
2017.
Several years later, on May 6, 2020, new counsel was
appointed to represent Perez-Trujillo on a pro bono basis. We
consolidated the 2011 and 2017 petitions and ordered supplemental
briefing on the issues presented in both. Before us now, then,
are both the 2011 petition for review, which concerns the BIA's
ruling affirming the denial of Perez-Trujillo's applications for
asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT relief; and the 2017
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petition for review, which concerns the BIA's reversal of the
ruling granting his application for adjustment of status. We
address each of these petitions for review in turn.
II.
With respect to Perez-Trujillo's 2011 petition for
review, we first consider his challenge to the BIA's affirmance of
the immigration judge's denial of his asylum and withholding of
removal claims. We then take up his challenge in that petition
for review to the BIA's affirmance of the immigration judge's
denial of his CAT claim. As we will explain, we find that there
is no merit to any of these challenges.
A.
To be eligible for asylum, Perez-Trujillo "must show
that [he] is unwilling or unable to return to [his] country because
of 'persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account
of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social
group, or political opinion.'" Pojoy-De León v. Barr, 984 F.3d
11, 16 (1st Cir. 2020) (quoting Diaz Ortiz v. Barr, 959 F.3d 10,
16 (1st Cir. 2020)). Perez-Trujillo initially applied for asylum
based on both "political opinion" and "membership in a particular
social group." See 8 U.S.C. §§ 1101(a)(42)(A), 1158(b)(1)(A).
Before us, however, he pursues the "particular social group" claim
only, and so that is the only one that we address. See Kelly v.
Riverside Partners, LLC, 964 F.3d 107, 115 (1st Cir. 2020)
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(concluding that appellant waived a challenge by failing to argue
it on appeal).
Perez-Trujillo argues that the BIA's ruling affirming
the immigration judge's denial of his application for asylum cannot
stand because the BIA both treated him as having sought asylum
based on his membership in a "particular social group" defined as
"witnesses who openly reported . . . gang activity to the police"
and then erred in holding that such a group is not a legally
cognizable one. In so arguing, Perez-Trujillo contends that it is
of no moment that he did not actually assert to the BIA, or the
immigration judge, that he was a member of a particular social
group so defined. All that matters, he asserts, is that the BIA
mistakenly proceeded on a different understanding of the
characteristics of the "particular social group" in which he was
claiming to have been a member and then wrongly ruled based on
that mistaken understanding that such a group is not a "particular
social group" at all.
Perez-Trujillo premises this aspect of his challenge on
the fact that the BIA stated in its opinion that he "indicated
that he believes that he was targeted by the gangs for recruitment
because he informed on an MS-13 member," and then pointed out that
the immigration judge, "[b]y way of analogy, . . . noted that the
First Circuit has held that informants to the United States
government working against a drug smuggling ring[] lacked social
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visibility." But, we do not read these passages to support his
contention that the BIA treated him as having claimed membership
in a witnesses-based "particular social group." Right after making
that statement, the BIA upheld the immigration judge's finding
"that the respondent's social group does not have social
visibility, . . . is indeterminate, and . . . is drawn from the
fact that its members have been targeted for persecution" by
quoting from the portion of the immigration judge's opinion that
clearly addresses only the "particular social group" which Perez-
Trujillo concedes is the only one of which he did claim to be a
member -- namely, the group consisting of "young Salvadoran male
students initiated into gangs against their will who refuse to
carry out gang orders and who leave the gang by fleeing the
country." And because we conclude that the government is right
that the BIA addressed -- and rejected -- Perez-Trujillo's claim
of asylum based on his "membership in a particular social group"
solely on the understanding that his proposed group was that one
and that one alone, we also agree that the government is right
that we have no jurisdiction to address whether he might have any
ground for seeking asylum based on his membership in any other
group, including the one involving witnesses that he contends that
the BIA wrongly deemed not to be a legally cognizable one. See
Samayoa Cabrera v. Barr, 939 F.3d 379, 383-84 (1st Cir. 2019).
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We turn, then, to Perez-Trujillo's separate contention
that the BIA erred in rejecting his claim of asylum based on his
membership in the group that we have just referenced and in which
he did plainly claim membership before both the immigration judge
and the BIA: young, male, Salvadoran students who are forcibly
recruited into gangs, refuse gang orders, and leave the gang.
Here, too, though, we conclude that there is no merit to his
challenge to the BIA's ruling affirming the immigration judge's
denial of his application for asylum.
A proposed "particular social group" must satisfy three
requirements to qualify as one: immutability, particularity, and
visibility. See De Pena-Paniagua v. Barr, 957 F.3d 88, 95-96 (1st
Cir. 2020). The "immutability" requirement is satisfied if the
members of the group "share a common immutable characteristic."
Id. at 96 (quoting Paiz-Morales v. Lynch, 795 F.3d 238, 244 (1st
Cir. 2015)). "Particularity" requires that the group have
"definable boundaries" and that it not be "amorphous, overbroad,
diffuse or subjective." Ramírez-Pérez v. Barr, 934 F.3d 47, 51
(1st Cir. 2019) (quoting Paiz-Morales, 795 F.3d at 244). Finally,
the "visibility" requirement is met if members of the group are
"socially distinct within the society in question," De Pena-
Paniagua, 957 F.3d at 96 (quoting Paiz-Morales, 795 F.3d at 244),
which means the group is "external[ly] perce[ived] . . . within a
- 10 -
given society," id. at 95 (third alteration in original) (quoting
Matter of M-E-V-G-, 26 I. & N. Dec. 227, 236 (B.I.A. 2014)).
The government urges us to uphold the BIA's ruling
affirming the immigration judge's denial of Perez-Trujillo's claim
of asylum based on his membership in this claimed "particular
social group" based on our prior decision in Larios v. Holder, 608
F.3d 105 (1st Cir. 2010). There, we denied the petitioner's claim
that "young Guatemalan men recruited by gang members who resist
such recruitment" constitute a valid particular social group. Id.
at 108. We explained that a particular social group "must be
generally recognized in the community as a cohesive group" and
that the petitioner there "ha[d] 'failed to provide even a
scintilla of evidence to this effect.'" Id. at 109 (quoting
Mendez-Barrera v. Holder, 602 F.3d 21, 26 (1st Cir. 2010)). The
government contends that Larios supports the BIA's ruling, given
that it, too, relies on a finding that the evidence did not suffice
to show that the claimed "particular social group" possessed the
requisite "social visibility."
Reviewing de novo, see Aguilar-De Guillen v. Sessions,
902 F.3d 28, 33 (1st Cir. 2018), we agree with the government that
Perez-Trujillo's case is not appreciably stronger than the
petitioner's in Larios. Perez-Trujillo does identify evidence in
the record that indicates that he personally was known within El
Salvador to have been a former member of the gang and to have
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resisted pressure by the gang to remain a member of it. He also
points to evidence in the record that bears on whether those
thought to be affiliated with gangs generally -- and, more
specifically, those who are former gang members -- are socially
visible within El Salvador. But, Perez-Trujillo does not argue
that he is entitled to asylum on account of his status as a former
gang member, which is understandable given our precedent. See
Cantarero v. Holder, 734 F.3d 82, 86 (1st Cir. 2013) (upholding
the BIA's rejection of the particular social group consisting of
former members of the 18th Street gang after determining that
"[t]he BIA reasonably concluded that . . . Congress did not mean
to grant asylum to those whose association with a criminal
syndicate has caused them to run into danger"). And, with respect
to the more narrowly defined proposed group on which his asylum
claim does rely, he has failed to identify any evidence in the
record that this specific group -- young, male, Salvadoran students
who are forcibly recruited into gangs, refuse gang orders, and
desert the gang -- is itself socially visible in El Salvador. See
Perez-Rabanales v. Sessions, 881 F.3d 61, 66 (1st Cir. 2018)
(explaining that the visibility requirement "turns on 'whether
members of a particular group "are set apart, or distinct, from
other persons within the society in some significant way"'"
(quoting Vega-Ayala v. Lynch, 833 F.3d 34, 39 (1st Cir. 2016)));
see also Carvalho-Frois v. Holder, 667 F.3d 69, 73 (1st Cir. 2012)
- 12 -
("[T]he relevant question is 'whether the social group is visible
in the society, not whether the alien herself is visible to the
alleged persecutors.'" (quoting Mendez-Barrera, 602 F.3d at 27)).
Thus, because Perez-Trujillo has not shown that his
proposed group is "generally recognized in the community as a
cohesive group," Larios, 608 F.3d at 109 (quoting Mendez-Barrera,
602 F.3d at 26), we must deny his 2011 petition for review as to
his application for asylum. And, that being so, we must also deny
his petition with respect to his application for withholding of
removal. See Thile v. Garland, 991 F.3d 328, 336 (1st Cir. 2021).
B.
We next consider Perez-Trujillo's challenge to the BIA's
affirmance of the immigration judge's denial of his application
for CAT protection. To prevail on his CAT claim, Perez-Trujillo
was required to show by a preponderance of the evidence that, if
returned to El Salvador, "he would be subject to torture 'by or
with the acquiescence of a government official.'" Aldana-Ramos v.
Holder, 757 F.3d 9, 19 (1st Cir. 2014) (quoting Nako v. Holder,
611 F.3d 45, 50 (1st Cir. 2010)). Acquiescence includes willful
blindness. See Ramírez-Pérez, 934 F.3d at 52. We review the BIA's
denial of his claim under a two-tiered standard, determining
whether factual findings are supported by substantial evidence and
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reviewing legal questions de novo. See Settenda v. Ashcroft, 377
F.3d 89, 93 (1st Cir. 2004).4
The BIA did not take issue with Perez-Trujillo's
contention that he would suffer harm sufficiently severe to
constitute torture if he were to return to El Salvador, and the
record contains ample evidence from which the BIA could so find.
In addition to his own testimony about the beatings he endured in
El Salvador at the hands of gang members and the threats to which
they have subjected him since he left that country, Perez-Trujillo
introduced country reports indicating that former gang members in
general face a heightened risk of encountering violence.
For example, one report, from the International Human
Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, states that "whereas in the
past it [had been] difficult, but feasible, for a gang member to
4 The government contends that Perez-Trujillo waived his CAT
claim by failing to raise it in his 2011 petition for review and
raising it for the first time in his opening supplemental brief,
which was filed in 2020. There is no jurisdictional bar to our
considering this claim, because the BIA addressed it. See
Mazariegos-Paiz v. Holder, 734 F.3d 57, 63 (1st Cir. 2013). And,
while we are generally reluctant to entertain "arguments not raised
in a party's initial brief," treating them as waived "except in
extraordinary circumstances," United States v. Pizarro-Berríos,
448 F.3d 1, 5 (1st Cir. 2006), here, we ordered supplemental
briefing when we consolidated these appeals, and Perez-Trujillo
raised the CAT claim in his opening supplemental brief. The
government had a full opportunity to respond to his CAT claim on
the merits in its own supplemental brief, filed nearly a month
after Perez-Trujillo's. We thus "perceive no possibility of
prejudice" to the government "and, accordingly, excuse any waiver
by" Perez-Trujillo, United States v. Rodríguez-Rosado, 854 F.3d
122, 125 n.3 (1st Cir. 2017), and so proceed to the merits.
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disassociate himself safely from a gang," as of 2007, it was
"virtually impossible" to do so. The report also states that
"[g]angs' methods of recruitment, and the sanctions they impose on
members who demonstrate disloyalty or who attempt to withdraw from
active gang life, are increasingly violent," and that "[t]hose who
were once part of gang life and decide to change their life paths
face severe consequences; gangs consider abandoning the gang as a
betrayal that justifies a death sentence." Indeed, one individual
interviewed for the report recounted that "killing people who left
the gang was part of the initiation for new gang members." The
same report explains that there was a "consensus among those [who
were] interviewed that joining a gang is a life commitment" and
that, while migrating is sometimes a way in which an individual
can leave a gang, "those gang members who leave the gang and
migrate to the United States face very serious threats to their
safety if they are deported back to El Salvador."
Perez-Trujillo also submitted another report, from the
Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. It summarizes a study
that found that "a new [MS-13] recruit becomes a full-fledged
member by 'teaching a lesson' to a member trying to dissociate
from the gang" and quotes a young man who, when initiated into MS-
13 at age thirteen, was told that "[t]he only way out is death."
He submitted as well an article from the Financial Times that
stated that "desertion [from MS-13] is punishable with death."
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Nonetheless, the BIA rejected Perez-Trujillo's CAT claim
on the ground that the immigration judge did not err in finding
that he had failed to meet his burden to show that any harm that
he might suffer in El Salvador would be "at the instigation or
with the acquiescence (to include the concept of willful blindness)
of a government official." See 8 C.F.R. § 208.18(a)(1). To
support that ruling, the BIA "note[d] that difficulty controlling
gangs is not the same as acquiescing in gang activities" and found
that the evidence Perez-Trujillo had submitted, "including his
testimony" and "background documents," "d[id] not show that anyone
in the El Salvadoran government likely would affirmatively consent
or turn a blind eye to his torture."
Perez-Trujillo challenges this conclusion in part based
on an affidavit that he submitted to the immigration judge. It
describes an incident in which MS-13 members allegedly beat him
and forced him to board a bus and demand money from the driver;
the police came; Perez-Trujillo was arrested; he tried to explain
to the police why he had been on the bus; the police "called [him]
a liar and said [he] was a member of the MS-13"; and the police
continued to accuse him of lying, threatened him, and jailed him
even after he denied he was a member of that gang.
This affidavit, however, does not provide a basis for
our overturning the BIA's finding as to acquiescence. The BIA
could have accepted the affidavit as credible and still reasonably
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concluded that the police disregarded Perez-Trujillo's assertions
that he was not a gang member because the officers did not believe
his story and thought that he was simply trying to evade arrest
rather than because they were willfully blind toward the gang's
abuse of him. Indeed, the fact that the officers were even
investigating what they apparently believed to be gang activity
cuts against Perez-Trujillo's assertion that the police in El
Salvador acquiesce in gang violence.
Perez-Trujillo separately attempts to support his
challenge to the BIA's acquiescence ruling by pointing to testimony
that he provided in his immigration proceedings that there were
other instances in which Salvadoran officers accused him of being
a gang member despite his protestations to the contrary. But, it
does not follow from skepticism by the officers of Perez-Trujillo's
insistence that he did not belong to MS-13 that law enforcement in
El Salvador is likely to turn a blind eye if MS-13 members attempt
to torture him.
Perez-Trujillo next points to evidence in the record
concerning an incident in which he provided the Salvadoran
authorities with information about the location of an MS-13 member
who had left a threatening voicemail on his phone following his
forcible initiation. Perez-Trujillo emphasizes that the
authorities neither prosecuted the member nor arrested any other
MS-13 members based on his tip. However, even where "efforts at
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managing gang activity [are not] completely effectual," that is
insufficient to sustain a CAT claim unless the record "compel[s]
a conclusion that the government has acquiesced in gang
activities." Mayorga-Vidal v. Holder, 675 F.3d 9, 20 (1st Cir.
2012); see also Cantarero, 734 F.3d at 87. And, we cannot conclude
that the evidence of this isolated incident meets that bar, at
least given the countervailing evidence of governmental efforts to
combat violence in El Salvador, including a report from the U.S.
Agency for International Development describing a "hard-line"
strategy by that government that is "aimed at incarcerating gang
members involved in criminal activity." See Cantarero, 734 F.3d
at 87; Mediouni v. INS, 314 F.3d 24, 28 (1st Cir. 2002) (explaining
that where the record "may permit [one] inference" but "does not
compel it," the record does not "require[] us to substitute our
judgment for the [BIA's] . . . pursuant to the substantial
evidence standard of review").
We are similarly unpersuaded by Perez-Trujillo's
contention that the evidence of the country conditions that he
submitted compels us to overturn the BIA's ruling as to
acquiescence. He highlights the Harvard report described above,
which states that gangs like MS-13 "are operating with growing
sophistication and impunity in El Salvador," that gangs are
responsible for close to one in five homicides in El Salvador, and
that the police forces "abandon their posts and disappear when
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gang members take to the streets." He also emphasizes that the
same report indicates both that "this violence is 'often encouraged
by the police,' especially when the victims are suspected gang
members," and that the government in El Salvador "frequently fails
to investigate and prosecute violence in which the victim is . . .
presumed to be a gang member." But, while Perez-Trujillo argues
that the BIA ignored these reports in ruling as it did as to
acquiescence, the BIA expressly stated in its opinion that it
considered "background documents such as State Department Country
Reports" that he submitted. See Li Sheng Wu v. Holder, 737 F.3d
829, 833 (1st Cir. 2013) ("[T]he BIA is not required 'to dissect
in minute detail every contention that a complaining party
advances,' or to discuss each piece of evidence proffered."
(citation omitted) (quoting Raza v. Gonzales, 484 F.3d 125, 128
(1st Cir. 2007))).
Nor are we persuaded by his assertion in his supplemental
briefing to us that the reports that he submitted -- at least when
viewed in combination with the other record evidence on which he
relies that we have described above -- compel a conclusion as to
governmental acquiescence contrary to the one that the BIA reached.
The bulk of the evidence on which he relies concerns official
tolerance of violence against gang members, rather than of violence
against former gang members like himself. Cf. Rosales Justo v.
Sessions, 895 F.3d 154, 165 (1st Cir. 2018) (explaining, in the
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context of evaluating whether the government was unable to protect
the petitioner from persecution, that "[a]lthough in some cases
country condition reports can be too generalized," they were
"particularly probative" there "because they closely mirrored the
specific circumstances" of the petitioner). In addition, as we
have noted, the record contains evidence that the government of El
Salvador has made efforts to crack down on gang violence. Thus,
Perez-Trujillo has not explained how the evidence that he
highlights -- in the context of the record as a whole -- suffices
to compel a different finding as to acquiescence from the one that
the BIA made. See Mendez-Barrera, 602 F.3d at 28 ("Although
[country conditions] reports are sometimes helpful to [a CAT]
claim, their generic nature is such that they are rarely
dispositive.").
Finally, we are not persuaded by Perez-Trujillo's
argument that the BIA incorrectly applied the willful blindness
standard in resolving this claim. Perez-Trujillo argues that the
BIA's statement that "difficulty controlling gangs is not the same
as acquiescing in gang activities" suggests that the BIA concluded
that "if the national-level government is making any effort to
control the gang activities," a CAT applicant cannot establish
acquiescence. But, in context, it is clear that the agency's
statement about evidence regarding the government's "difficulty
controlling gangs" was just a description of a subset of the
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evidence Perez-Trujillo had submitted and an accurate conclusion
that such evidence does not suffice to establish acquiescence.
See Mayorga-Vidal, 675 F.3d at 20.
III.
Having found no merit to any of the challenges that
Perez-Trujillo advances in his 2011 petition for review in support
of his asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT claims, we now turn
to the 2017 petition. Here, Perez-Trujillo challenges the denial
of his application for adjustment of status.
Perez-Trujillo argues that the BIA committed legal error
in two respects in overruling the immigration judge to deny his
application for adjustment of status. First, he contends that the
BIA failed to consider the hardship that he would suffer if he
were forced to return to El Salvador, which he argues is a
"mandatory factor" that the BIA must consider under its precedent.
Second, he argues that the BIA applied the incorrect standard of
review to the immigration judge's factual determinations.
The government responds first by contending that we lack
jurisdiction to review Perez-Trujillo's claims. Because we reject
that contention, we then move on to address its merits-based
arguments for upholding the BIA's ruling. As we will explain,
here, too, we are not fully persuaded by them.
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A.
A BIA decision denying adjustment of status is a
discretionary determination. See 8 U.S.C. § 1255(a); Jaquez v.
Holder, 758 F.3d 434, 435 (1st Cir. 2014). As such, we have no
jurisdiction to consider a petition for review challenging such a
decision, see 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(B)(i), except to the extent
that the petition raises "constitutional claims or questions of
law," id. § 1252(a)(2)(D). See also Jaquez, 758 F.3d at 435.
The government argues that although Perez-Trujillo
"purports to raise legal claims, it is apparent that he is actually
attempting to challenge the way the agency weighed the various
factors." But, Perez-Trujillo's first argument in his 2017
petition is that the BIA's past precedent in Matter of Arai, 13 I.
& N. Dec. 494 (B.I.A. 1970), requires the agency to consider the
hardship an individual will suffer if denied adjustment of status
and that it failed to do so here. And, an argument that the BIA
has "departed from its settled course of adjudication" in the
process of making a discretionary determination is a type of legal
challenge that we have previously reviewed. See Thompson v. Barr,
959 F.3d 476, 490 (1st Cir. 2020). We thus see no basis for
concluding that Perez-Trujillo's first argument is not a legal one
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insofar as it is premised on the contention that the BIA failed to
consider a factor it was legally required to consider.5
B.
Turning to the merits, then, we must determine whether
Perez-Trujillo is right in arguing not only that, in light of
Matter of Arai, the BIA was required to consider in an
individualized manner the hardship that he might suffer if he were
required to return to El Salvador but also that the BIA then failed
to undertake such consideration in reversing the immigration
judge's grant of his application for adjustment of status.6
Notably, in responding to this contention, the government takes no
issue with Perez-Trujillo's contention that Matter of Arai
required the BIA to consider individualized hardship in his case.
5The government also relies on our case law holding that we
lack jurisdiction over a petition that could be read to include
legal claims if those claims are "not colorable." See Elysee v.
Gonzales, 437 F.3d 221, 224 (1st Cir. 2006). To the extent that
Perez-Trujillo's claims can be construed as legal ones, the
government argues, they are "meritless and belied by the record."
But, that is simply a contention that his claims ought to fail on
the merits -- a contention that, as we will next explain, we reject
-- and so provides no reason for us to conclude that we lack
jurisdiction.
The government contended at argument that the BIA's decision
6
tracked all of the favorable factors that Perez-Trujillo raised in
his brief before the agency. To the extent that the government
intended to suggest Perez-Trujillo has waived the argument that he
faces an individualized risk of harm in El Salvador, we note that
in his brief to the BIA Perez-Trujillo highlighted the evidence
supporting the "actual harm" he would face in that country and the
circumstances that gave rise to his departure.
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Rather, it focuses its response on a contention that the BIA in
fact did all that was required here under that prior BIA precedent
with respect to consideration of the individualized hardship
factor.
The government is right that the BIA did account for
Perez-Trujillo's family ties to the United States and lack of any
to El Salvador, his other ties to this country that would be
severed if he were removed there, as well as what the government
describes as the "potential problems of returning to a country
with a high level of crime and violence." So, this is not a case
in which the BIA failed to consider hardship at all in determining
that the equities failed to support an application for adjustment
of status.
But, we do not understand Perez-Trujillo to contend
merely that the BIA erred as a matter of law because it failed to
engage in any hardship inquiry. We understand him to be arguing
that it erred as a matter of law because it ignored altogether a
particularly salient aspect of the hardship showing that he was
trying to make -- namely, that he in particular was at risk of
suffering severe physical harm in El Salvador by virtue of being
a former gang member if he were to be removed to that country.
The government develops no argument that such a failure
would not constitute a legal error, insofar as Matter of Arai
mandates an individualized hardship inquiry. Nor, as we have
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noted, does the government dispute that Matter of Arai mandates
that inquiry. Thus, the key issue concerns whether the BIA did in
fact consider the evidence of hardship that Perez-Trujillo
contends that it ignored. We cannot agree that it did.
With the possible exception of the portion of the BIA's
opinion that references the "level of crime and violence" in El
Salvador, nothing in that opinion indicates that the BIA considered
any of the evidence that Perez-Trujillo submitted in support of
that critical aspect of his attempt to show hardship in defending
the immigration judge's grant of his adjustment of status
application based on the equities. Rather, at least if we set
that portion aside for the moment, the opinion merely shows that
other aspects of Perez-Trujillo's hardship case were considered.
The government did contend for the first time at oral
argument that the BIA's express acknowledgment in its opinion that
the immigration judge had considered that Perez-Trujillo's "return
to El Salvador will be particularly dangerous given the level of
crime and violence in that country," (emphasis added), is best
understood as an assessment by it of the dangers that Perez-
Trujillo in particular faces upon his return to that country. And,
the government went on to suggest, the BIA thus should be read to
have considered the evidence at issue and merely failed to give it
the weight that Perez-Trujillo would wish.
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The problem with this contention, though, is that it
ignores the "given the level of crime and violence in that country"
qualifying language in the quoted passage. That qualifying
language prevents us from concluding that the BIA in noting that
returning to El Salvador would be "particularly dangerous" for
Perez-Trujillo was considering the unique threat to his physical
well-being that he contended that he faces due to his past gang
membership. Rather, that qualifying language appears to indicate
that the BIA was considering only the general danger that anyone
would face in that country due to "the level of crime and violence
in that country."
In consequence, we cannot agree with the government that
the BIA gave any consideration in connection with its hardship
inquiry to whether El Salvador would be dangerous for Perez-
Trujillo in particular, given the special risk that he faces of
being severely harmed due to his past gang membership. And that
failure is especially concerning given that, as we have explained,
the record contains substantial evidence to that effect, including
not only evidence concerning the lengths to which the gang that he
testified he had been forced to join while in El Salvador had gone
to pursue him even after he had left that country but also the
country reports' representations concerning the risks of harm that
former gang members face from the gangs they have left. Indeed,
we note in this regard that DHS has granted Perez-Trujillo a
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special immigrant visa based on a state-court finding that it
"would not be in [his] best interest to be returned" to El
Salvador, see 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(27)(J)(ii), and that the
immigration judge, relying in part on the state-court finding
indicating that Perez-Trujillo "has been unable to reunify with
one parent due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment," found that,
after "taking into consideration all of the negative and positive
factors . . . , the scale tips in [Perez-Trujillo's] favor."
To be sure, the government is right that we have no
jurisdiction to re-weigh the evidence of hardship. But, a re-
weighing could only occur if there had been a weighing of that
evidence in the first place. And, here, we conclude that there
was no weighing of that evidence at all. We thus reject the
government's argument that the BIA, in overturning the immigration
judge's ruling granting Perez-Trujillo adjustment of status, did
consider hardship as he contends that it was required to do under
Matter of Arai. And, as the government offers no argument as to
how the BIA's ruling may be sustained notwithstanding that failure
on its part, we must vacate and remand it for further
consideration. See, e.g., Mukamusoni v. Ashcroft, 390 F.3d 110,
120 (1st Cir. 2004) (finding that "[t]he BIA committed errors of
law and misapplied the law by," among other things, "focusing
narrowly on only parts of the record that supported its decision");
see also Aldana-Ramos, 757 F.3d at 18-19, 18 n.7 (remanding where
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the BIA had not grappled with salient evidence in the explanation
it provided for its decision).
IV.
Perez-Trujillo's 2011 petition is denied, but his 2017
petition is granted. We thus vacate the BIA's 2017 decision
overturning the ruling by the immigration judge granting him
adjustment of status and remand it to the agency for further
proceedings.
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