Jefferson Guardado v. Attorney General United States


NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT ___________ No. 18-2068 ___________ JEFFERSON GUARDADO, Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Respondent ____________________________________ On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (Agency No. A209-346-147) Immigration Judge: Honorable Paul M. Gagnon ____________________________________ Submitted Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a) December 14, 2018 Before: GREENAWAY, JR., RESTREPO and FUENTES, Circuit Judges (Opinion filed: January 24, 2019) ___________ OPINION* ___________ PER CURIAM Jefferson Guardado petitions pro se for review of a final order of removal. For the reasons that follow, we will dismiss the petition in part and deny it in part. * This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not constitute binding precedent. I. Guardado is a citizen of El Salvador. He first entered the United States in 2008, at the age of 26. In 2017, the Government charged Guardado with being removable as an alien present in the United States without being admitted or paroled. See 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i). Through counsel, Guardado conceded his removability but applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). On October 23, 2017, Guardado had an individual hearing before an Immigration Judge (IJ) on his application for relief. Guardado testified that he witnessed a murder by MS-13 gang members in 2008. Guardado had no involvement with the gang. After the murder, gang members approached Guardado and told him that he “had not seen anything.” A.R. at 370. Guardado hid at home for several days while gang members stopped by to ask if the police had asked him any questions. Guardado did not tell the police what he witnessed. When a former classmate told Guardado that the gang was planning to kill him, he moved to a relative’s home. Two armed gang members found him, asked him why he was hiding, and “showed [him] the[ir] weapons.” A.R. at 373. Guardado decided to leave El Salvador after this incident. Soon after Guardado left, the Salvadoran police arrested several of the gang members responsible for the murder that Guardado witnessed. Guardado believes that gang members will target him if he were to return to El Salvador because gang members frequently ask his stepfather, who still lives in his town, where Guardado lives. Guardado also contends that country conditions in El Salvador 2 have worsened substantially since he left and that the gang can find him anywhere he goes. Finally, Guardado testified that he supports his two minor children financially and that they would suffer if he were forced to return to El Salvador. Although the IJ found Guardado’s testimony credible, he denied Guardado’s application on November 3, 2017. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) affirmed on April 17, 2018. The BIA concluded that Guardado’s asylum claim was time-barred because he did not file his asylum application within one year of his last entry into the United States and did not demonstrate that ...

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