Case: 21-60574 Document: 00516572375 Page: 1 Date Filed: 12/09/2022 United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit FILED December 9, 2022 No. 21-60574 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk Oscar Aguado-Cuevas, Petitioner, versus Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney General, Respondent. Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals Agency No. A088 772 838 Before King, Stewart, and Haynes, Circuit Judges. Per Curiam:* Oscar Aguado-Cuevas, a Mexican national, petitions for review of the BIA’s decision affirming a denial of his application for relief under the Convention Against Torture. For the reasons below, we GRANT the petition, VACATE the BIA’s decision, and REMAND this case for further consideration of Aguado-Cuevas’s petition for CAT protection. * This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5. Case: 21-60574 Document: 00516572375 Page: 2 Date Filed: 12/09/2022 No. 21-60574 I. Oscar Aguado-Cuevas, a Mexican national, first entered the U.S. without inspection in 1996. In 2010, he was found removable. In June 2011, he was removed to Mexico after filing an unsuccessful motion to reopen his removal order. In 2012, Aguado-Cuevas reentered the U.S. without inspection. In May 2020, the Department of Homeland Security initiated proceedings to reinstate Aguado-Cuevas’s 2010 removal order. An Immigration Judge (“IJ”) placed Aguado-Cuevas in withholding proceedings after finding that Aguado-Cuevas had established a reasonable fear of torture in Mexico. Aguado-Cuevas filed an application for relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”), arguing that his uncles and cousins in Mexico were cartel members who would kill him if he returned. In September 2020, Aguado-Cuevas, his father, and an expert witness testified in support of Aguado-Cuevas’s CAT application. Aguado-Cuevas testified to the following facts. In 2012, Aguado- Cuevas and his cousin Adolfo Robles Valdez (“Adolfo Jr.”) were in the Mexican state of Jalisco when they noticed a group of “marines, uniformed men” entering the home of another cousin (“El Perro”) after El Perro had been “arrogant” and “talking about the cartel.” El Perro was never seen again. Adolfo Jr.’s father (“Adolfo Sr.”), who was “like the mayor of the township in the area,” had organized the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (“CJNG” or the “Cartel”) to disappear people like El Perro, sometimes for money. Adolfo Sr. and his uncle, Martin Famania, a Mexican Immigration Services employee, were involved in such disappearances. Aguado-Cuevas also linked another cousin’s disappearance to Adolfo Sr. By May 2017, Aguado-Cuevas was back in the U.S. and had begun working with Adolfo Jr. to traffic cocaine for CJNG. During one of these dealings, Aguado-Cuevas and Adolfo Jr. failed to complete a transaction and 2 Case: 21-60574 Document: 00516572375 Page: 3 Date Filed: 12/09/2022 No. 21-60574 were unable to recover a $120,000 payment owed to CJNG, leading CJNG to hold Aguado-Cuevas responsible for the debt. Aguado-Cuevas was arrested on February 13, 2018. He was charged with cocaine possession with intent to deliver. 1 On February 28, 2019, Aguado-Cuevas signed a cooperation agreement and began cooperating with federal authorities. Aguado-Cuevas’s cooperation, including …
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