Jose Alberto Perez-Guerrero v. U.S. Attorney General

717 F.3d 1224, 2013 WL 2500607, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 11809
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJune 12, 2013
Docket12-10261
StatusPublished
Cited by105 cases

This text of 717 F.3d 1224 (Jose Alberto Perez-Guerrero v. U.S. Attorney General) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jose Alberto Perez-Guerrero v. U.S. Attorney General, 717 F.3d 1224, 2013 WL 2500607, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 11809 (11th Cir. 2013).

Opinions

PER CURIAM:

This petition presents the question whether the Board of Immigration Appeals erred when it denied Jose Alberto Perez-Guerrero’s request for relief under the Convention Against Torture. Perez-Guerrero accepted a bribe from a Mexican drug cartel while he was employed by the United States Embassy in Mexico City. After the United States arrested Perez-Guerrero, he provided valuable information about corrupt officials in Mexico and pleaded guilty to bribery and obstruction of justice. Perez-Guerrero completed a sentence in a federal prison, and the United States then petitioned to remove him. The immigration judge and the Board concluded that Perez-Guerrero was subject to removal and that he was not entitled to relief under the Convention because he had failed to prove that it was more likely than not that he would be tortured in Mexico. We have jurisdiction to review only the conclusions of law, but not the findings of fact, of the Board. 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(C), (D). Because the Board committed no error of law, we deny Perez-Guerrero’s petition for relief under the Convention. We also reject Perez-Guerrero’s argument that his removal to Mexico would violate his right to due process. And we direct the Clerk to seal records of Perez-Guerrero’s guilty plea and those portions of the record that contain information about the identity and whereabouts of Perez-Guerrero’s family.

I. BACKGROUND

Perez-Guerrero, a native and citizen of Mexico, accepted a bribe from a Mexican drug cartel while he worked for the United States Embassy in Mexico City. Perez-Guerrero’s job then was to assist the Unit[1227]*1227ed States in locating and extraditing American fugitives in Mexico. In November 2007, Perez-Guerrero and an associate named Jose Antonio Cueto Lopez accepted a bribe from a man known as “Mr. Nineteen.” In exchange for the bribe, Perez-Guerrero gave Mr. Nineteen information about an American fugitive who the Embassy was tracking in Mexico.

In June 2008, the United States flew Perez-Guerrero to Virginia under the pretense that he was to receive training in the United States, but federal officials arrested Perez-Guerrero upon his arrival at Dulles International Airport. Perez-Guerrero admitted that he had accepted the bribe, and he cooperated with American and Mexican officials. Over the next several months, Perez-Guerrero provided those officials with information about corrupt officials in Mexico who cooperated with the drug cartels. Based in part on the information that Perez-Guerrero provided, officials conducted “Operation Cleanup,” which led to the arrest of 45 people, including several high-ranking Mexican law enforcement officials. Although officials promised Perez-Guerrero that his identity as an informant would remain confidential, Perez-Guerrero’s identity as an informant was leaked to the media and published in news reports.

Perez-Guerrero pleaded guilty in the district court for the District of Columbia to one count of bribery, 18 U.S.C. § 201(b)(2)(C), and one count of obstruction of justice, id. § 1503. The district court sentenced Perez-Guerrero to 24 months of imprisonment. Perez-Guerrero agreed that he would be removed to Mexico after the completion of his sentence and that he would be in violation of the plea agreement if he contested his deportation on any grounds other than that he faced death or injury in Mexico as a result of the cooperation he provided to the United States and Mexican governments. Perez-Guerrero alleges that American officials told him that they would find a way to ensure that he did not return to Mexico at the conclusion of his prison sentence.

Near the end of his sentence, the Department of Homeland Security filed a notice for Perez-Guerrero to appear at a removal hearing. The Department stated that Perez-Guerrero was removable because he was an alien who had been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude, 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(2)(A)(i)(I), and was an alien without a valid visa or entry document, id. § 1182(a)(7)(A)(i)(I). Guerrero conceded that he was removable, but he sought asylum, withholding of removal, and deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture. Perez-Guerrero introduced evidence about country conditions and the likelihood that he would face torture in Mexico. This evidence included his own testimony, an affidavit from his wife, the testimony of an expert on country conditions in Mexico, and documentary evidence.

Perez-Guerrero testified that he fears that he will be tortured or killed by the drug cartels and corrupt officials in Mexico. Perez-Guerrero testified that the information that he provided to police implicated several high-ranking Mexican officials and that police arrested most but not all of the Individuals he implicated. Perez-Guerrero also stated in an affidavit that- “law- enforcement and other governmental institutions are often infiltrated by and effectively run by organized crime groups” and that he believes that “[i]t is reasonable to expect that the organized crime groups and/or. the officials controlled by these organized crime groups in Mexico will kill me in an effort to seek revenge for the information I disclosed, which took down their colleagues.” Perez-Guerrero testified that the witness protection program of Mexico [1228]*1228would be unable to protect his identity from the cartels and corrupt officials. And he testified that, had he known that he would be sent back to Mexico after his arrest, he did not know if he would have assisted officials in their investigation because his safety and the safety of his family was “one of the main conditions” of his cooperation.

Perez-Guerrero also testified that his family has received threats in connection with his decision to cooperate with investigators. When Perez-Guerrero cooperated with American and Mexican officials, his wife worked at a Mexican law enforcement agency. Perez-Guerrero provided information to Mexican and American officials that led to the arrest of some of his wife’s co-workers. Perez-Guerrero testified, and his wife’s affidavit confirmed, that his wife had received death threats and that some of her co-workers had told her that they could not associate with her because she was in danger and they did not want to be killed. Perez-Guerrero also testified that his mother had received suspicious telephone calls in Mexico while he was in detention and that his wife had been forced to take their child out of school because she feared that he would be harmed. Perez-Guerrero acknowledged that neither he nor his wife received any threats after he began serving his prison sentence in the United States.

Perez-Guerrero also introduced the testimony of Dr. Bruce Bagley, an expert on country conditions in Mexico, who testified that Perez-Guerrero faces danger in Mexico. Dr. Bagley acknowledged that the then-president of Mexico,'Felipe Calderón, had taken steps to combat corruption in the Mexican government, and that Calderón had attempted to reform the police forces at the national, state, and local levels. Dr. Bagley testified that Calderón had reorganized the national police force and that Mexico might experience results from a better trained, better paid, and more highly monitored police force in approximately four years. Dr.

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717 F.3d 1224, 2013 WL 2500607, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 11809, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jose-alberto-perez-guerrero-v-us-attorney-general-ca11-2013.