Victor Meraz-Saucedo v. Jeffrey A. Rosen

986 F.3d 676
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJanuary 15, 2021
Docket20-1438
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 986 F.3d 676 (Victor Meraz-Saucedo v. Jeffrey A. Rosen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Victor Meraz-Saucedo v. Jeffrey A. Rosen, 986 F.3d 676 (7th Cir. 2021).

Opinion

In the

United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 20-1438 VICTOR MERAZ-SAUCEDO, Petitioner, v.

JEFFREY A. ROSEN, Acting Attorney General of the United States, Respondent. ____________________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. No. A205-154-483. ____________________

ARGUED NOVEMBER 6, 2020 — DECIDED JANUARY 15, 2021 ____________________

Before ROVNER, BRENNAN, and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges. ST. EVE, Circuit Judge. Victor Meraz-Saucedo seeks asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Immigra- tion and Nationality Act and the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). He petitions for review of the order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“Board”) and requests we remand his case for additional proceedings before the Immigration Court. We deny his petition. We find the Board did not abuse its 2 No. 20-1438

discretion in denying Meraz-Saucedo’s motion to remand to apply for cancellation of removal. We also find the Board’s de- cision affirming the denial of Meraz-Saucedo’s asylum, with- holding of removal, and protection under the CAT claims was supported by substantial evidence. I. Background Meraz-Saucedo is a native and citizen of Mexico. He is married to a Mexican native and citizen with whom he has two young U.S.-citizen children. Meraz-Saucedo first at- tempted to enter the United States around October 2003. After encountering immigration officials at the border, he was re- turned to Mexico. He entered the United States without in- spection in 2004 and has not departed. On October 25, 2013, the Department of Homeland Secu- rity issued and served a Notice to Appear (“NTA”) on Meraz- Saucedo for removal proceedings. See 8 U.S.C. § 1229(a). The NTA did not contain a specific date or time for the initial hear- ing. The NTA only instructed Meraz-Saucedo to appear be- fore an Immigration Judge (“IJ”) in Chicago at a date and time “to be set.” On December 4, 2013, the Chicago Immigration Court served Meraz-Saucedo a Notice of Hearing (“NOH”), informing him that his hearing would take place on July 23, 2014 at 9:00 a.m. Meraz-Saucedo appeared before the IJ with counsel on July 23, 2014. He did not object to the lack of a specified time and date in his NTA. During the proceedings before the IJ on July 23, 2014, Me- raz-Saucedo admitted the factual allegations, conceded the charge of removability under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i), and declined to designate a country for removal. The IJ designated Mexico at the Department of Homeland Security’s request. No. 20-1438 3

The IJ found Meraz-Saucedo to be removable as charged for being present in the United States without having been ad- mitted or paroled. Meraz-Saucedo informed the IJ that he sought asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the CAT, based on his purported fear of persecution and tor- ture if removed to Mexico. See 8 U.S.C. §§ 1101(a), 1231(b)(3); 8 C.F.R. §§ 1208.16–18. The IJ denied his request for asylum and withholding of removal. At his hearing, Meraz-Saucedo testified and based his asylum claim on the physical abuse and threats that his family had received from the Sinaloa Cartel in El Palmito, Du- rango, Mexico because of his father’s refusal to grow mariju- ana for the cartel in 2003. Following this refusal, Meraz- Saucedo’s father sent him to the United States for his safety. His father and siblings subsequently relocated to Durango City, approximately six hours from their farm and the cartel. Meraz-Saucedo testified that in 2013, other cartel members beat his father badly and kidnapped Meraz-Saucedo’s brother and niece. After Meraz-Saucedo’s father paid for their release, the cartel members warned him that they would kill them all if they said anything about the incident. The cartel members also told his father that they were going to use the family’s land and house, that they knew Meraz-Saucedo was in the United States, and that they would make them disappear as soon as Meraz-Saucedo returned to Mexico. Meraz-Saucedo’s immediate family has not had any encounters with cartel members since this incident. The IJ found Meraz-Saucedo credible, but concluded he had “not established a pattern or practice of persecution against his family members by the cartel.” Moreover, even if such a pattern or practice existed, the IJ concluded Meraz- 4 No. 20-1438

Saucedo could not establish a nexus between the persecution and the targeting of his family as a social group because the targeting was the result of financial and not familial reasons. The IJ also found Meraz-Saucedo failed to show a substan- tial risk or likelihood that he would be singled out for torture in Mexico or that a government official would acquiesce to any harm inflicted upon him by the cartel. Although Meraz- Saucedo submitted general reports regarding country condi- tions in Mexico describing gang violence and other safety is- sues, the record did not show a particularized threat of tor- ture. Meraz-Saucedo conceded that he had never been tor- tured in Mexico. Further, he admitted that nothing else had happened to his immediate family after the 2013 incident even though his parents live in the same house where they lived during that incident and his brother and niece who were kidnapped still live in Mexico. And although several of his cousins were killed in 2017, the IJ found no link between their deaths and the cartel attack and extortion of Meraz-Saucedo’s family. Meraz-Saucedo appealed to the Board. While his appeal was pending, he filed a motion to remand to apply for cancel- lation of removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b). Meraz-Saucedo claimed the Supreme Court’s decision in Pereira v. Sessions, 138 S. Ct. 2105 (2018), made him newly eligible for cancella- tion of removal. In February 2020, the Board adopted and affirmed the IJ’s decision. The Board found no clear error in the IJ’s findings of fact. It also denied Meraz-Saucedo’s motion to remand, find- ing the argument “foreclosed” by Matter of Mendoza-Hernan- dez, 27 I&N Dec. 520 (BIA 2019), and distinguishable from Ortiz-Santiago v. Barr, 924 F.3d 956 (7th Cir. 2019). No. 20-1438 5

II. Discussion In his petition, Meraz-Saucedo challenges the Board’s de- nial of his motion to remand on several grounds. He again claims the Supreme Court’s decision in Pereira makes him el- igible for cancellation of removal because the NTA was defec- tive for purposes of stopping time under § 1229b(d)(1). He further contends that the Board erred when it denied his mo- tion to remand based on Matter of Mendoza-Hernandez and wrongly applied Ortiz-Santiago. Finally, Meraz-Saucedo ar- gues the Board erred when it affirmed the IJ’s denial of his asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the CAT claims. A. Motion to Remand We first address whether the Board erred in denying Me- raz-Saucedo’s motion to remand to apply for cancellation of removal. We review the Board’s decision for abuse of discre- tion and will reverse only if the Board’s decision “was made without a rational explanation, inexplicably departed from established policies, or rested on an impermissible basis.” Al- varez-Espino v. Barr, 959 F.3d 813, 817 (7th Cir. 2020) (quoting Giri v. Lynch, 793 F.3d 797, 800–01 (7th Cir. 2015)).

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Bluebook (online)
986 F.3d 676, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/victor-meraz-saucedo-v-jeffrey-a-rosen-ca7-2021.