Case: 17-60394 Document: 00514888763 Page: 1 Date Filed: 03/26/2019 IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit FILED March 26, 2019 No. 17-60394 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk ABDIFATAH GAAS QORANE, also known as Qorane Abdifatah Gaas, Petitioner, v. WILLIAM P. BARR, U.S. Attorney General, Respondent. Petitions for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals Before CLEMENT, GRAVES, and OLDHAM, Circuit Judges. ANDREW S. OLDHAM, Circuit Judge: The federal government denied Abdifatah Gaas Qorane various forms of immigration relief after concluding he would not be persecuted or tortured in his home country of Somalia. Despite Qorane’s requests, the government chose not to revisit that conclusion. He filed a petition for review asking us to revisit it instead. We deny the petition. I. On January 14, 2016, Qorane attempted to enter the United States at Brownsville, Texas. The Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) commenced removal proceedings because Qorane did not have valid entry documents. Before an Immigration Judge (“IJ”), Qorane conceded removability. But he applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and Case: 17-60394 Document: 00514888763 Page: 2 Date Filed: 03/26/2019 No. 17-60394 protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). He argued he would suffer persecution in Somalia because he belonged to a minority clan, the Ashraf. Qorane testified before the IJ that he was born in Mogadishu in 1988, but his family moved to Qoryoley in 1991. There he later developed a water delivery business. Not every customer paid. When a customer didn’t pay, Qorane would simply cease delivering to his home. One day, a delinquent customer—and member of the dominant Ayr clan—ordered Qorane to continue selling him water. The delinquent customer told Qorane “[i]t’s in your own interests,” and “[y]ou know who I am and what I own.” When Qorane refused, the customer pulled Qorane from his donkey cart, causing him to bump his hip on a rock. The man then threatened Qorane, saying “if you don’t listen to my orders, I will kill you,” and “you will never survive in this city because you are a minority person.” Qorane’s mother confronted the customer, but he insisted Qorane “has to take my orders.” “[N]othing else” happened after this incident, and neither Qorane nor his mother reported it to the police. Qorane did not seek medical attention for his hip. Qorane also testified that on prior occasions Ayr customers verbally abused and slapped him. And he said Ayr members of the local militia previously threatened to jail him if he did not pay taxes. In January 2011, a few weeks after being pulled from his donkey cart, Qorane moved to Uganda. He lived there for four years. During that time, he found a job and got engaged; his fiancée currently lives in Somalia. Then he moved to Angola, where he lived for a little over six months. By his own admission, Qorane made the decision to come to the United States only in late 2015—and apparently after being repeatedly ...
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