In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ Nos. 19‐1453 & 19‐2312 ELVIRA GARCIA‐ARCE, Petitioner, v. WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General of the United States, Respondent. ____________________ Petitions for Review of Orders of the Board of Immigration Appeals. No. A079‐775‐996 ____________________ ARGUED DECEMBER 11, 2019 — DECIDED DECEMBER 30, 2019 ____________________ Before FLAUM, HAMILTON, and BARRETT, Circuit Judges. FLAUM, Circuit Judge. Elvira Garcia‐Arce seeks withhold‐ ing of removal to Mexico under the Immigration and Nation‐ ality Act and the Convention Against Torture. She has filed two petitions for review of orders of the Board of Immigration Appeals (the “Board”). We deny both petitions. As to the first petition, the Board’s decision affirming the denial of Garcia‐ Arce’s withholding application was supported by substantial 2 Nos. 19‐1453 & 19‐2312 evidence. As to the second petition, the Board did not abuse its discretion in concluding that Garcia‐Arce’s prior counsel’s assistance was not so deficient that Garcia‐Arce was pre‐ vented from reasonably presenting her case. I. Background Elvira Garcia‐Arce, also known as Erika Esmeralda Fre‐ goso Lopez, is a native and citizen of Mexico who was re‐ moved from the United States in 2001 and illegally re‐entered the United States shortly thereafter. After she was arrested for driving under the influence and without a license in 2018, the Department of Homeland Security detained her and rein‐ stated her 2001 removal order. Attorney Gwendolyn Smith prepared Garcia‐Arce’s appli‐ cation for withholding of removal and represented her in sub‐ sequent immigration proceedings. After an asylum officer in‐ terviewed Garcia‐Arce, an immigration judge held a hearing on the merits of Garcia‐Arce’s application. Garcia‐Arce sought withholding of removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act, see 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3), and the Convention Against Torture, see 8 C.F.R. §§ 1208.16–.18, based on her pur‐ ported fear of persecution and torture if removed to Mexico. The immigration judge denied her request for withhold‐ ing of removal. At her hearing before the immigration judge, Garcia‐Arce testified that she feared returning to Mexico be‐ cause in her hometown she was physically assaulted by her brother and sexually assaulted by her uncle and a man named “Tacos,” who was a member of a gang to whom her brother “sold her” to repay a drug debt. The immigration judge noted that there were “serious problems” with Garcia‐Arce’s credi‐ Nos. 19‐1453 & 19‐2312 3 bility due, in part, to her having presented a fake birth certif‐ icate at the border and her statements to border agents that she did not fear returning to Mexico. The immigration judge nevertheless held that even assuming Garcia‐Arce had shown that she had been subjected to persecution in Mexico, it was both possible and reasonable for Garcia‐Arce to avoid the threat of persecution by relocating within Mexico. She testi‐ fied that her brother had passed away from a drug overdose, that her uncle still lives in her hometown, and that she had previously lived in Mexico with the father of her son in a town ...
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