UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 20-1393 DOUGLAS LEKE, Petitioner, v. MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. Argued: March 11, 2021 Decided: June 23, 2021 Before GREGORY, Chief Judge, and AGEE and DIAZ, Circuit Judges. Petition for review denied by unpublished per curiam opinion. ARGUED: Danielle L.C. Beach-Oswald, BEACH-OSWALD IMMIGRATION LAW ASSOCIATES, PC, Washington, D.C., for Petitioner. Karen L. Melnik, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. ON BRIEF: Ethan P. Davis, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Bernard A. Joseph, Senior Litigation Counsel, Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. PER CURIAM: Douglas Leke, a native and citizen of Cameroon, petitions for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals order dismissing his appeal of an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) decision denying his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). Leke argues that he was deprived of a full and fair hearing and that the Board erred in upholding the IJ’s decision. For the following reasons, we deny the petition for review. I. A. Leke applied for a tourist visa to the United States in April 2018. His application was denied after he appeared for a consular interview in Cameroon. Leke later entered the U.S. without a valid entry document. He was taken into custody after a credible fear interview and placed in removal proceedings. Leke claims that he fled Cameroon after being persecuted for an imputed political opinion. According to Leke, the military suspected him of being an Anglophone separatist—which he maintains he isn’t—and began persecuting him less than two weeks after his visa application was denied. Soldiers beat, arrested, and imprisoned him in late May 2018, but he escaped about a month later during a nighttime assault on the prison. After spending several months in hiding with his wife and infant daughter, Leke claims he returned to his apartment to pack up his things, only for soldiers to beat and arrest him a second time. But he again escaped custody as the soldiers were escorting him to 2 their vehicle to transport him back to prison. The soldiers then returned to Leke’s apartment and burned it down. Leke claims that his uncle’s friend smuggled him out of Cameroon a few weeks later. He traveled through thirteen countries en route to the U.S., eventually arriving in San Ysidro, California (where he was detained). 1 B. Leke admitted the factual allegations in his Notice to Appear and conceded removability. He then applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT protection and received an evidentiary hearing before an IJ. Leke appeared at his hearing by video from a detention facility. The attorneys representing Leke and the government appeared in-person. During Leke’s direct examination, there were several interruptions with the video connection between Leke and the courtroom. In response, the IJ …
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