NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT ______________ No. 20-1421 ______________ LUIS RAMOS CRUZ, Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ______________ On Petition For Review of an Order of the Immigration Court (Agency Case No.: A087-622-304) Immigration Judge: Alice Song Hartye _____________ Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) October 20, 2020 ______________ Before: GREENAWAY, JR., COWEN, and FUENTES, Circuit Judges. (Opinion filed: January 8, 2021) ______________ OPINION ______________ FUENTES, Circuit Judge. This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not constitute binding precedent. Luis Ramos Cruz petitions for review of an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) determination, in a reasonable fear proceeding, that he was not entitled to relief from reinstatement of his prior removal order. For the following reasons, we will deny the petition. I. Ramos Cruz is a native and citizen of Honduras. In 2009, he unlawfully entered the United States and was served with an expedited order of removal and was removed. Later that same year, however, he entered the United States without inspection. Ramos Cruz lived in Philadelphia without incident until early 2020, when he was apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) agents while they were conducting an unrelated investigation, and was served with an order reinstating the 2009 removal order. Upon apprehension, Ramos Cruz expressed that he was afraid of returning to Honduras. Accordingly, he was referred to an asylum officer for a reasonable fear interview pursuant to 8 C.F.R. § 241.8(e). At the interview, Ramos Cruz, who was represented by counsel, told the asylum officer that he feared returning to Honduras because he had been attacked by a group of unidentified drug dealers there. He believed that the drug dealers targeted him because they mistook him for his brother, who had previously been part of their group and was selling drugs in their territory. Although the drug dealers attempted to stab Ramos Cruz in the stomach, he was able to partially deflect the attack and was stabbed in the hand instead. 2 He reported the incident to the police and was told that they would investigate the matter. Ramos Cruz, however, did not believe they would ultimately take any steps to protect him because of police corruption in the country, and he left Honduras before receiving any update as to the progress of their investigation. His mother, who stayed in Honduras, followed up on the case a year after the incident, and told Ramos Cruz that, at that time, the police had not identified his attackers. Ramos Cruz told the asylum officer that he remained fearful of returning to Honduras because the drug dealers might again mistake him for his brother, who had since left the country, and try to kill him. At the end of the interview, Ramos Cruz, through counsel, argued that he had shown a reasonable possibility that he was eligible for withholding of removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3) based on his membership in a protected ...
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