USCA11 Case: 21-11381 Date Filed: 03/14/2022 Page: 1 of 9 [DO NOT PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 21-11381 Non-Argument Calendar ____________________ GURDEEP SINGH, Petitioner, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ____________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals Agency No. A216-264-794 ____________________ USCA11 Case: 21-11381 Date Filed: 03/14/2022 Page: 2 of 9 2 Opinion of the Court 21-11381 Before GRANT, LUCK, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Gurdeep Singh, an Indian national, seeks relief from removal because opposition-party members twice beat and threatened him for putting up posters for his political party, and he fears further harm if he returns to India. Although those beatings were unfortunate, they were not severe enough to amount to persecution. Nor does the record compel us to conclude that his fear of more severe mistreatment upon return is reasonable. We therefore deny Singh’s petition for review of the Board’s denial of his application for relief. I. Singh left Dasuya, a town in India’s Punjab region, and after traveling through more than ten countries crossed into the United States without inspection. Within a month, immigration officers apprehended him and placed him in removal proceedings. At an initial removal hearing, Singh conceded his removability but told the presiding immigration judge that he planned to apply for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. But his lawyer did not file his relief application on time. The immigration judge decided that, because of the delay, Singh had abandoned any relief that he might have obtained, and thus ordered his removal to India. USCA11 Case: 21-11381 Date Filed: 03/14/2022 Page: 3 of 9 21-11381 Opinion of the Court 3 Singh successfully moved to reopen his proceedings, and the immigration judge held an evidentiary hearing on the relief application. There, Singh testified that he was twice attacked while he was volunteering for the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) Mann party—a party that advocates for a separate country for Sikhs like Singh. The first attack, he said, occurred in April 2017 while he was hanging posters for the Mann party. Some number of persons wearing shirts with a logo for the India National Congress party approached and tore down the posters. When Singh protested, they began beating him. His friend and nearby shopkeepers quickly came to his aid. As the shopkeepers approached, the assailants told Singh that “it would be wiser” if he quit his party to join theirs—and then fled. The beating did not deter him; ten to fifteen days later, he began volunteering for the party again. The next few months passed without incident, but in July 2017, he was attacked again. On Singh’s way home from putting up posters, four persons approached him on motorbikes that bore a logo for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The riders stopped him, began beating him with wooden sticks, and warned that he would “get killed” if he did not quit the Mann party. This beating …
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