USCA11 Case: 19-13715 Date Filed: 08/24/2021 Page: 1 of 34 [PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 19-13715 ________________________ Agency No. A216-265-732 SENTHOORAN MURUGAN, Petitioner, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ________________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals ________________________ (August 24, 2021) Before MARTIN, NEWSOM, and BRANCH, Circuit Judges. BRANCH, Circuit Judge: USCA11 Case: 19-13715 Date Filed: 08/24/2021 Page: 2 of 34 Senthooran Murugan petitions for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), affirming the denial of his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). In 2017, Murugan fled Sri Lanka and entered the United States without authorization. He claims that he suffered past persecution in Sri Lanka on account of an imputed political opinion and membership in the particular social group of Tamils, and that he would suffer future persecution and torture if returned to Sri Lanka. An immigration judge (IJ) found that Murugan could not establish that he suffered past persecution or that he would suffer future persecution on account of an imputed political opinion or membership in a particular social group and denied his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT relief. The BIA affirmed that decision. On appeal, Murugan contends that the BIA and the IJ committed various legal and factual errors in analyzing his claims. Because the agency applied the correct legal standards and its factual findings are supported by substantial evidence, and because Murugan failed to exhaust some of his arguments before the BIA, we dismiss in part and deny in part Murugan’s petition for review. I. Background Murugan is a native and citizen of Sri Lanka and a member of the country’s Tamil minority. In September 2017, he fled Sri Lanka and subsequently entered 2 USCA11 Case: 19-13715 Date Filed: 08/24/2021 Page: 3 of 34 the United States without authorization. Murugan claims that he left Sri Lanka because of three incidents involving the Sri Lankan Army. The first incident occurred in February 2017. Murugan was arrested while returning home from work and questioned by Sri Lankan soldiers about what he was doing alone late at night, where he had come from, and where he was going. He was not harmed, but he was detained at an army camp and told that he would be released only if his parents came to pick him up. Murugan’s parents came to pick him up the next morning, and he was released. Then, in June 2017, Murugan was arrested, along with two others, while distributing humanitarian aid to refugees who had come to his village from Vanni, Sri Lanka.1 He was brought to an army camp, tied to a chair, and interrogated for four days. The soldiers wanted to know whether Murugan had a prior connection to the refugees because the refugees came from a part of Sri Lanka that was under the control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Murugan …
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals