“For practically ten years, a Honduran gang performed a marketing campaign of terror and violence in Honduras in opposition to Petitioner Melvin Funez-Ortiz and his household. The gang murdered a number of of Funez’s relations, shot Funez, and threatened to kill him and his kin. To flee this violence, Funez fled to america, the place immigration officers finally apprehended Funez and initiated removing proceedings in opposition to him. Funez utilized for numerous types of aid, together with deferral of removing below the Conference In opposition to Torture (the CAT).1 After conducting a listening to, an immigration decide (IJ) granted Funez’s software for deferral of removing below the CAT. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) later reversed the IJ’s determination. Funez petitions for assessment of the BIA’s determination. He contends that the BIA erred by (1) ignoring related proof referring to the probability that Funez shall be tortured if he’s eliminated to Honduras, and by (2) participating in improper factfinding about whether or not the Honduran authorities would acquiesce to gang torture of Funez upon his return to Honduras. After contemplating these arguments and the report earlier than us, we grant Funez’s petition and remand for additional proceedings. … The BIA by no means grappled with this important proof and even talked about it. The BIA’s failure to take action constitutes an abuse of discretion. … As a result of the BIA ignored, with out rationalization, legally important proof concerning Funez’s capability to relocate safely, we conclude that the BIA’s failure to handle that proof constituted an abuse of discretion. … To find that the person in uniform was not a member of the army however was a gang member in “possession of a army police uniform,” the BIA engaged in its personal de novo assessment of the IJ’s factual findings. This was authorized error. The BIA didn’t present a “cogent” motive for its rejection of the IJ’s discovering. … [W]e grant Funez’s petition for assessment, vacate the BIA’s determination, and remand for the BIA to conduct proceedings in keeping with this opinion. We additional order that Funez’s keep of removing be maintained in the course of the pendency of the remand proceedings.”
[Hats way off to Amelia Dagen and team! Listen to the oral argument here.]
