Case: 21-60182 Document: 00516800497 Page: 1 Date Filed: 06/26/2023 United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ____________ United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit No. 21-60182 FILED June 26, 2023 ____________ Lyle W. Cayce Simon Hagos Gidey, Clerk Petitioner, versus Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney General, Respondent. ______________________________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals Agency No. A213 482 834 ______________________________ Before Smith, Clement, and Wilson, Circuit Judges. Per Curiam:* Simon Hagos Gidey, purportedly a native and citizen of Eritrea, was served with a notice to appear for arriving in the United States without a visa or other valid entry document. He conceded removal and applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). The immigration judge (IJ) denied his applications. Gidey appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which dismissed his appeal. Gidey petitioned this court for review. We deny the petition. _____________________ * This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5. Case: 21-60182 Document: 00516800497 Page: 2 Date Filed: 06/26/2023 No. 21-60182 Gidey testified as follows at his removal hearing. He was born in 1994 and raised primarily by his mother in Senafe, Eritrea. His father was a soldier. In 2016, Gidey’s father was arrested, and his family’s income plummeted. To make up for the shortfall, Gidey started working at a bakery in May 2016. He completed eleventh grade a month later and, per Eritrean law, was required to report to a military camp to begin compulsory military service. Gidey shortly received two summonses from Eritrean authorities directing him to report. He ignored them because he knew he would be arrested if he reported and because he needed to support his family financially. He further explained that he opposes Eritrean military service because it is “like slavery,” “human rights are not respected,” it is unpaid, it lasts indefinitely, and “[soldiers] are [] servant[s] of the officials.” In October 2016, after Eritrean authorities arrested Gidey’s mother, he turned himself in. He was detained for two weeks. During that time, he was beaten and interrogated. He escaped detention by scaling a prison fence and traveled by foot through Eritrea into Ethiopia. Gidey was questioned by Ethiopian authorities, received a ration card, and completed forms to obtain refugee status. He was transported to a refugee camp called Hitsats, where he lived for about three years. Gidey testified that he was politically active there and openly expressed his views against the Eritrean government. According to Gidey, after Ethiopia and Eritrea entered into a peace treaty, agents of the Eritrean government began entering Ethiopian refugee camps to kidnap Eritreans. In August 2019, Gidey fled to Brazil with the assistance of a smuggler who took Gidey’s ration card, but supplied Gidey with an Ethiopian passport that had Gidey’s identifying information on it. Gidey arrived in Laredo, Texas in February 2020 and applied for admission to enter the United States. In support, Gidey submitted a declaration, birth certificate, handwritten …
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