In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 17‐1998 RODRIGO RAMOS‐BRAGA, Petitioner, v. JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS III, Attorney General of the United States, Respondent. ____________________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. No. A 097‐837‐809 ____________________ ARGUED JANUARY 24, 2018 — DECIDED MAY 21, 2018 AMENDED AUGUST 14, 2018 ____________________ Before BAUER, KANNE, and BARRETT, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM. Rodrigo Ramos‐Braga, a citizen of Brazil, pe‐ titions for review of the denial of his second motion to reopen proceedings on his applications for special‐rule cancellation of removal, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). His motion was both nu‐ 2 No. 17‐1998 merically barred and untimely filed with the Board of Immi‐ gration Appeals, but Ramos‐Braga argued that these limits should be excused under the doctrine of equitable tolling for ineffective assistance of counsel or under a statutory excep‐ tion based on changed country conditions. The Board deter‐ mined that neither exception applied and that the time and numerical limits therefore barred his motion. Because the Board did not abuse its discretion, we deny the petition. I. Ramos‐Braga was raised in a neighborhood of São Paulo, Brazil that came to be controlled by a multi‐national gang named the Primero Comando Capital (PCC). His father dealt drugs for the gang and was one of its managers, until he had a falling out with the gang’s leader. Starting when Ramos‐ Braga was 13, the PCC tried repeatedly to recruit him, but he refused to join. Unrelenting, PCC members caught Ramos‐ Braga at school and around town, physically attacked him at least ten times, and eventually threatened him with death. In‐ itially, Ramos‐Braga reported these attacks to Brazilian offi‐ cials, but local police did nothing in response and eventually, officers would beat him when he made reports, claiming that he was a suspected gang member. At age 16 he stopped re‐ porting his PCC encounters to police because in one instance officers beat him until he spat blood, and he came to believe that the police were paid by the PCC to harm him. When Ra‐ mos‐Braga was about 18 years old, PCC members offered him one “last chance” to join; after he refused they assaulted him with pipes—severely injuring him and hospitalizing him for two weeks. He stopped attending college and spent months moving between homes of his family members in other parts of the city and another town. When he returned to São Paulo, No. 17‐1998 3 a PCC member shot him from behind, putting him back in the hospital for days. In January 1999, three months after being shot, Ramos‐ Braga was admitted to the United States on a student visa. He eventually married a U.S. citizen, but the two had a tumultu‐ ous relationship. Ramos‐Braga estimated that his wife physi‐ cally abused him over 100 times. Seven years after he arrived, the Department of Homeland Security issued a Notice to Appear charging Ramos‐Braga with overstaying ...
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