17-4058 Gallina v. Wilkinson In the United States Court of Appeals For the Second Circuit ________ AUGUST TERM, 2019 ARGUED: APRIL 28, 2020 DECIDED: FEBRUARY 12, 2021 No. 17-4058-ag FERDINANDO GALLINA Petitioner, v. ROBERT M. WILKINSON, ACTING UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. * ________ On Petition for Review of a Final Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. ________ Before: WALKER, POOLER, and LYNCH, Circuit Judges. ________ Ferdinando Gallina petitions for review of a Board of Immigrations Appeals decision denying him relief under the Convention Against Torture. Gallina argues *Pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 43(c)(2), Acting Attorney General Robert M. Wilkinson is automatically substituted for former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen as Respondent. 2 No. 17-4058 that he was tortured in Italy when he was subjected for more than six years to solitary confinement and other restrictive conditions in Italy’s 41-bis prison regime, a prison regime designed to hold persons convicted of Mafia crimes, acts of terrorism, and the like. Gallina contends that he would be returned to 41-bis detention if removed to Italy and thus that he would more likely than not be tortured once more. We disagree that the conditions Gallina has alleged he faced or would face rise to the level of torture, as that term is used in the Convention Against Torture and its implementing regulations at 8 C.F.R. § 1208.18. We therefore DENY the petition for review. Judge Pooler dissents in a separate opinion. ________ JOSHUA L. DRATEL, Joshua L. Dratel, P.C., New York, NY, for Petitioner. JENNIFER R. KHOURI, Trial Attorney (Joseph H. Hunt, Assistant Attorney General, Russell J.E. Verby, Senior Litigation Counsel, on the brief), Office of Immigration Litigation, United States Department of Justice, Washington D.C., for Respondent- Appellee. ________ 3 No. 17-4058 JOHN M. WALKER, JR., Circuit Judge: Ferdinando Gallina petitions for review of a Board of Immigrations Appeals (BIA) decision denying him relief under the Convention Against Torture. 1 Gallina argues that he was tortured in Italy when he was subjected for more than six years to solitary confinement and other restrictive conditions in Italy’s 41-bis prison regime, a prison regime designed to hold persons convicted of Mafia crimes, acts of terrorism, and the like. Gallina contends that he would be returned to 41-bis detention if removed to Italy and thus that he would more likely than not be tortured once more. We disagree that the conditions Gallina has alleged he faced or would face rise to the level of torture, as that term is used in the Convention Against Torture and its implementing regulations at 8 C.F.R. § 1208.18. We therefore DENY the petition for review. BACKGROUND In 2008, Gallina was arrested in Italy on charges of Mafia association and aggravated continuous extortion. For nearly a decade starting in his early 20s, following his father’s Mafia-related arrest, Gallina worked for the heads of the Mafia in Palermo, Italy: Salvatore and Antonio LoPiccolo. 2 At his hearing before the Immigration Judge (IJ), Gallina testified that he was trusted ...
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals