NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 20a0657n.06 Case No. 19-3075 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED Nov 17, 2020 ISHAN AL-KOORWI, ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk ) Petitioner, ) ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW v. ) FROM THE UNITED STATES ) BOARD OF IMMIGRATION WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General, ) APPEALS ) Respondent. ) OPINION ) Before: KETHLEDGE, BUSH, and NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judges. NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judge. Ishan Al-Koorwi petitions this court for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals decision denying his application for deferral of removal. Because substantial evidence supports the agency’s findings, we DENY his petition for review. I. Al-Koorwi is a native and citizen of Iraq who first came to the United States in January 2011 as a refugee. In April 2013, Al-Koorwi became a lawful permanent resident of the United States. On February 17, 2016, Al-Koorwi pleaded no-contest to a charge of Attempted Unlawful Imprisonment, in violation of Michigan Compiled Law § 750.349b. The Department of Homeland Security then served Al-Koorwi with a Notice to Appear in immigration court, charging him as subject to removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(2)(A)(i)(I), as an alien convicted of attempting to commit a crime involving moral turpitude. No. 19-3075, Al-Koorwi v. Barr Represented by counsel, Al-Koorwi appeared at the initial master calendar hearing in his removal proceedings on December 22, 2016. Because of his conviction, the Immigration Judge (“IJ”) found Al-Koorwi removable. Al-Koorwi then applied for asylum, withholding of removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3), and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”), arguing that he would be persecuted and tortured if deported to Iraq because of his association with the United States and his status as a Sunni Muslim. Following three individual hearings on his application, the IJ found that Al-Koorwi’s conviction for a particularly serious crime barred him from statutory relief. So he denied Al-Koorwi’s request for deferral of removal under CAT. Al-Koorwi moved to reopen his application based on changed conditions in Iraq, alleging that he would face torture as a Sunni Muslim, criminal, and perceived supporter of the United States. The IJ granted Al-Koorwi’s motion to reopen, solely to determine whether he was eligible for deferral of removal under the CAT, considering the alleged changed conditions. During the reopened proceedings, the government submitted into evidence the 2016 United States Department of State Country Report for Iraq and the 2016 International Religious Freedom Report for Iraq. The IJ also took judicial notice of the 2017 versions of these reports. Al-Koorwi submitted into evidence affidavits from Daniel W. Smith, Mark Lattimer, and Rebecca Heller. But the IJ found that neither Smith nor Heller qualified as an expert witness and admitted their declarations instead as percipient witnesses. The government contradicted the testimony of these witnesses with expert witnesses—Michael Rubin, Douglas Ollivant, and Denise Natali—and a report issued by the government of the United Kingdom. Ultimately, the IJ found the government’s evidence more persuasive and, based on the totality of the evidence, held that Al-Koorwi failed ...
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