NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS DEC 13 2021 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT MAXIMO DE LEON-AJUCUM, No. 20-70433 Petitioner, Agency No. A205-023-748 v. MEMORANDUM* MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals Argued and Submitted November 19, 2021 San Francisco, California Before: PAEZ, WATFORD, and FRIEDLAND, Circuit Judges. Maximo De Leon Ajucum (“De Leon”), a native and citizen of Guatemala, petitions for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) order denying his motion to reopen to pursue relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). We grant the petition and remand with instructions to grant the motion to reopen. 1. The BIA abused its discretion in denying De Leon’s motion to reopen, * This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. which included sworn declarations by De Leon and his sister providing evidence that he had received ineffective assistance of counsel in his removal proceedings. According to De Leon’s declaration, his former counsel never spoke with him as she prepared his I-589 form and accompanying declaration. She did not review the application with him, translate it, or read it to him in Spanish before filing it. The first time De Leon saw or spoke with his former counsel was at his September 23, 2013 hearing in immigration court, and she did not meet with him to discuss or prepare for the next hearing on October 17, 2013. De Leon’s first prolonged conversation with her was on direct examination at the October hearing, at the end of which the immigration judge denied his applications for relief. Former counsel also failed to present easily obtainable country conditions evidence that would have supported De Leon’s claim that he would face torture if returned to Guatemala. Indeed, the only country conditions evidence for Guatemala consisted of a two-page excerpt from the 2011 State Department Human Rights Report that did not discuss gang violence or the forced recruitment of young men. De Leon’s sister stated in her declaration that former counsel asked her to write a letter of support to the court, as well as to get letters from their mother and from several people in Guatemala who had witnessed De Leon’s mistreatment, but that counsel only ever submitted the letters from De Leon’s sister and mother. Former counsel sent a signed, unsworn letter in response to De Leon’s 2 complaint disagreeing with these accusations. She contended that she had “prepared the I-589 and the declaration with Mr. De Leon with the facts that he provided” to her and had “read both back to him in Spanish, and . . . read everything to him one more time just before the hearing.” She further stated that the only corroborating letters she had received were the letters from De Leon’s sister and mother. Finally, former counsel explained that she did not submit further …
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals