Case: 18-12210 Date Filed: 05/28/2019 Page: 1 of 8 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 18-12210 Non-Argument Calendar ________________________ Agency No. A094-210-917 JOSE LUIS CASTELLON BARILLAS, Petitioner, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ________________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals ________________________ (May 28, 2019) Before MARTIN, NEWSOM, and BRANCH, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Jose Luis Castellon Barillas petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’s (“BIA”) final order. The BIA dismissed Castellon Barillas’s appeal, Case: 18-12210 Date Filed: 05/28/2019 Page: 2 of 8 agreeing with the Immigration Judge (“IJ”) that Castellon Barillas was barred from receiving special rule cancellation of removal under § 203 of the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (“NACARA”). Because we conclude substantial evidence supports the BIA’s decision, we deny Castellon Barillas’s petition. I. On October 14, 1995, Castellon Barillas, a native and citizen of El Salvador, applied for asylum in the United States. He stated he “was in political party militar” and was mistreated for having been in that group. On March 3, 2009, an immigration officer interviewed Castellon Barillas regarding his application. Based on information from the application and interview, on March 23, 2009, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) notified Castellon Barillas that it would deny his application. Prior to entering the country without inspection in June of 1989, Castellon Barillas had served in the Salvadoran military from 1981–1988, during the Salvadoran Civil War. Castellon Barillas said he would, if he returned to El Salvador, be persecuted by guerrillas, the Salvadoran military’s opponents during the civil war. USCIS concluded Castellon Barillas had failed to establish a well-founded fear of persecution: neither he nor his family had been harmed or received threats, and he knew of no former Salvadoran soldiers who had been killed by former guerrillas after returning to El Salvador following 2 Case: 18-12210 Date Filed: 05/28/2019 Page: 3 of 8 the war. In addition, USCIS noted Castellon Barillas may have been barred from receiving asylum as a possible persecutor himself—the “persecutor bar” to asylum relief. Country condition reports showed that military members in El Paraiso, where Castellon Barillas served, “committed serious human rights abuses” during the relevant time period. On April 28, 2009, Castellon Barillas was issued a notice to appear for being an alien present in the United States without being admitted or paroled. Castellon Barillas admitted to that status, and the IJ found him removable as charged in the notice to appear. About a year later, on April 26, 2010, Castellon Barillas withdrew his asylum application. On August 13, 2013, he filed an application for cancellation of removal under NACARA. The government requested time to investigate the persecutor-bar issue, which applies to NACARA as it does to asylum. 1 Castellon Barillas’s NACARA hearing before the IJ was held on January 9, 2017. Castellon Barillas was the sole testimonial witness. Castellon Barillas 1 NACARA, Pub. L. No. 105-100, 111 Stat. 2160, 2196–99 ...
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