Not for Publication in West's Federal Reporter United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit No. 21-2002 G.P., Petitioner, v. MERRICK B. GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. PETITION FOR REVIEW OF AN ORDER OF THE BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS Before Gelpí, Howard, and Thompson, Circuit Judges. SangYeob Kim, with whom Gilles Bissonnette, American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, and New Hampshire Immigrants' Rights Project, were on brief for petitioner. Jennifer P. Lyon, Courtney H.G. Herz, and Sheehan Phinney Bass & Green, PA on brief for New Hampshire Legal Assistance and the University of Maine School of Law Refugee and Human Rights Clinic, amici curiae. Adam Gershenson, Alex Robledo, Angela Dunning, Marc Suskin, Robby L.R. Saldaña, and Cooley LLP on brief for Former Immigration Judges and Former Members of the Board of Immigration Appeals, amici curiae. Kristin Macleod-Ball and Trina Realmuto on brief for the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, and Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project, amici curiae. Richard Kelley, Trial Attorney, Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice, with whom Brian Boynton, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, and Melissa Neiman-Kelting, Assistant Director, Office of Immigration Litigation, were on brief for respondent. July 13, 2023 GELPÍ, Circuit Judge. Petitioner G.P.1 seeks review of the Board of Immigration Appeals' ("BIA") decision affirming the denial of his application for protection under the Convention Against Torture ("CAT"). We first address our jurisdiction to hear this matter before turning to the merits. Ultimately, because the immigration judge's ("IJ") decisions -- giving limited weight to the expert witness testimony and disregarding the expert's opinion that G.P. faced a high risk of torture -- were not supported by substantial evidence, we grant G.P.'s petition, and thus vacate and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. As such, we limit our discussion of G.P.'s additional claims accordingly. I. Background A. G.P.'s Presence in the United States G.P., a native and citizen of the Dominican Republic, first entered the United States without inspection in 1993. He was subsequently convicted of trafficking cocaine, served a seventeen-year prison sentence, and was removed to the Dominican Republic in 2011. G.P. reentered the United States -- again, without inspection -- in 2017 and shortly thereafter began selling drugs on behalf of Sergio Martinez ("Martinez"), the leader of a large fentanyl trafficking organization in New England (the 1On January 14, 2022, this court granted the Petitioner's motion to proceed under the pseudonym "G.P." - 3 - "Martinez Group"). In 2018, G.P. and Martinez, along with over thirty others, were arrested and charged for their involvement in the drug trafficking conspiracy. G.P. pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute and to possess with the intent to distribute fentanyl, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 846, and cooperated with the government against Martinez. For his cooperation, G.P. received a thirty-six-month prison sentence, while Martinez, who decided to plead guilty during G.P.'s testimony, was sentenced to forty-five years of imprisonment. Following the completion of his sentence …
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