In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 17-2920 GERSON E. ALVARENGA-FLORES, Petitioner, v. JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS III, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, Respondent. ____________________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. No. A206-184-822 ____________________ ARGUED APRIL 20, 2018 — DECIDED AUGUST 28, 2018 ____________________ Before SYKES and BARRETT, Circuit Judges, and DURKIN, District Judge. * BARRETT, Circuit Judge. Alvarenga seeks asylum, withhold- ing of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Tor- ture because he fears torture and persecution from gang members if he returns to El Salvador. The immigration judge * Of the Northern District of Illinois, sitting by designation. 2 No. 17-2920 concluded that Alvarenga lacked credibility and denied him relief. Finding no clear error in the immigration judge’s deci- sion, the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed the appeal. Substantial evidence supports the decisions of the immigra- tion judge and the Board, and the record does not compel a contrary conclusion. We therefore deny Alvarenga’s petition for review. I. Gerson Eliseo Alvarenga-Flores was apprehended cross- ing the United States border, and he gave a “credible fear” interview while he was detained. 1 He said that he was afraid to return to El Salvador, where he is a citizen, because after witnessing the murder of a friend, he received threats from the gang members responsible. His case was referred to an immigration judge (IJ), and the Department of Homeland Se- curity filed a Notice to Appear. It charged him with remova- bility under the Immigration and Naturalization Act because he did not possess valid non-immigrant visas, travel docu- ments, or immigrant visas, and he was not exempt from pos- sessing those documents. § 212(a)(7)(A)(i)(I), 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(7)(A)(i)(I). Alvarenga conceded that he was remov- able and applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). The IJ denied all three forms of relief based on an adverse credi- bility finding; he also found that Alvarenga’s asylum applica- tion was time-barred. 1Petitioner moved to redact his name from our opinion. Redaction is an extraordinary measure, and petitioner has not shown that it is war- ranted here. No. 17-2920 3 He based the adverse credibility finding on inconsisten- cies in Alvarenga’s testimony about the two events that had prompted him to leave El Salvador for fear of persecution. One involved his escape from gang members who attacked him in a taxi; the other involved his escape from gang mem- bers who approached him on a bus. First, the taxi: Alvarenga claimed that he and three friends were riding in a taxi that was stopped by a gang, which fired shots at the car and ultimately killed one person. He offered two different accounts of what happened. In his written state- ment, Alvarenga said that his friend Jose Diaz was sitting in the front passenger seat. After the attack began, Diaz exited his door and fled on foot, which distracted the gunmen and allowed the ...
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