NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit Chicago, Illinois 60604 Argued March 2, 2021 Decided March 30, 2021 Before KENNETH F. RIPPLE, Circuit Judge DAVID F. HAMILTON, Circuit Judge THOMAS L. KIRSCH II, Circuit Judge No. 20-2792 EDGAR MAGANA AYALA, Petition for Review of an Order of the Petitioner, Board of Immigration Appeals. v. No. A058-223-748 MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General of the United States, Respondent. ORDER Petitioner Edgar Magana Ayala is a Mexican citizen who was a legal permanent resident in the United States before he committed a drug crime and was removed to Mexico, where he sold drugs for a cartel. He returned illegally and was later placed in removal proceedings. Magana applied for deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture asserting that he fears he will be killed by cartels if he is removed again to Mexico. An immigration judge denied relief, finding that Magana had not proven he faced a substantial risk of torture. The Board of Immigration Appeals upheld that determination. Magana petitions for review of the denial of his application. Because the agency’s decision is supported by substantial evidence, we deny his petition. No. 20-2792 Page 2 I. Background Magana, now 32 years old, was born in Mexico and as an infant was brought to the United States without legal documentation. At age 18, he became a legal permanent resident after he was adopted by his stepfather, who is a United States citizen. See 8 U.S.C. §§ 1255, 1151(b)(2)(A)(i), 1101(b)(1)(E). Soon after, however, in 2007, Magana pleaded guilty to an Illinois state charge for manufacture or delivery of cocaine in violation of 720 Ill. Comp. Stat. § 570/401(c)(2). He was sentenced to two years of probation, but his conviction counted as an aggravated felony under immigration law, see 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(B), and he was found removable under § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii). In 2013, he was removed to Mexico. At his recent hearing before an immigration judge, Magana testified about his difficult life in Mexico upon his return, and particularly his run-ins with a powerful regional drug cartel. He was living with his grandmother in a small town in the state of Colima on Mexico’s west coast. The town was home to two local “plazas,” or turfs, controlled by small sub-groups of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). Each plaza had about six or seven members who sold drugs for the cartel. Magana was confronted and accused by a cartel member, Leo Gonzalez, of selling drugs for a rival cartel out of the tattoo shop that he ran from his grandmother’s home. Gonzalez warned Magana that his plaza’s members planned to interrogate him about his drug dealing. Magana relocated his tattoo shop, but he soon was approached by the other plaza’s members. They put a choice to him: pay them off with a large monthly sum, close his shop, or sell methamphetamine for them. Unable to afford the payoff, …
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