NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 21a0406n.06 No. 20-3580 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED Aug 26, 2021 MIGUEL ANGEL GUILLEN, ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk ) Petitioner, ) ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW FROM v. ) THE UNITED STATES BOARD OF ) IMMIGRATION APPEALS MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney ) General, ) OPINION ) Respondent. ) BEFORE: KETHLEDGE, STRANCH, and NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judges. JANE B. STRANCH, Circuit Judge. Miguel Guillen was a soldier in the El Salvadoran Army from 1983 to 1985, during which time the army perpetrated numerous human rights abuses on guerillas and civilians. When he applied for asylum in the United States, an immigration judge (“IJ”) and the Board of Immigration Appeals concluded that Guillen was barred from relief because he had failed to satisfy his burden to show that he had not participated in the human rights abuses. Guillen appeals, arguing that the immigration judge erred in shifting the burden to him before the Government had put sufficient evidence in the record to show a nexus between his conduct and the abuses as well as knowledge of the abuses. Because we conclude that Guillen has failed to exhaust his arguments, we DENY the petition for review. No. 20-3580, Guillen v. Garland I. FACTUAL BACKROUND El Salvador endured a civil war from 1980 to 1992. During this conflict, the El Salvadoran Army battled several factions of guerillas and perpetrated significant human rights abuses. The El Salvadoran Army conducted “zone killings” and “sweeps” from 1980 to 1983 to keep civilians from supporting the guerillas. Subsequently, “[f]rom 1984, the use of terror tactics by the military—indiscriminate killings and extrajudicial executions of prisoners or suspected guerilla sympathizers—became more selective, but aerial bombing escalated sharply and illegal detentions and torture continued to be widespread.” Guillen joined the El Salvadoran Army in March 1983; he testified that he was enlisted unwillingly. He left the army in January of 1985. Guillen was in the second company of the Battalion Canas,1 which was in the Fifth Brigade, and he served in the San Vicente area. He was trained to infiltrate guerilla camps and to obtain information. Guillen reported this information to his colonel but claims he did not know what his colonel did with the information. Guillen was aware that the army attacked the guerillas based on the information he provided but testified that he had never witnessed his battalion attack civilians or commit atrocities against civilians. He left the army in 1985, after his company disbanded. The guerillas apparently identified Guillen and visited his home while searching for him. When they did not find Guillen there, they killed his 13- year-old brother. Guillen arrived in the United States in 1987. He filed his first asylum application in October 1988, his second application in 1993, and his third application in 1995. In 2001, he filed for cancellation of removal under the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA), Pub. L. No. 105-100, § 203(a)(1), 111 Stat. 2160, 2197–98 (1997). …
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