PUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 19-1904 MIGUEL ANGEL AREVALO QUINTERO, Petitioner, v. MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, Respondent. -------------------------------- RETIRED IMMIGRATION JUDGES AND FORMER MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS, Amicus Supporting Petitioner. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. Argued: December 8, 2020 Decided: May 26, 2021 Before MOTZ, WYNN, and FLOYD, Circuit Judges. Petition for review granted and remand awarded by published opinion. Judge Wynn wrote the opinion, in which Judge Floyd joined. Judge Motz wrote an opinion concurring in the judgment. ARGUED: Susan Baker Manning, MORGAN LEWIS & BOCKIUS, LLP, Washington, D.C., for Petitioner. Jenny Chong Lee, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. ON BRIEF: Patrick A. Harvey, Clara Kollm, MORGAN, LEWIS & BOCKIUS LLP, Washington, D.C., for Petitioner. Joseph H. Hunt, Assistant Attorney General, Jonathan Robbins, Senior Litigation Counsel, Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. Steven H. Schulman, AKIN GUMP STRAUSS HAUER & FELD LLP, Washington, D.C., for Amici Retired IJs and Former Members of the Board of Immigration Appeals. 2 WYNN, Circuit Judge: Petitioner Miguel Angel Arevalo Quintero seeks review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ final order affirming the denial of his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. His petition alleges that the immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals made several legal errors in their consideration of his claims for withholding of removal and Convention Against Torture relief. 1 This case also presents an important question of first impression in our Circuit: whether immigration judges have a legal duty to develop the record. For the reasons set forth below, we hold that they do. Accordingly, we grant the petition for review, vacate the denial of Petitioner’s application for withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. I. A. Petitioner was born in 1994 in El Salvador, a country long plagued by rampant gang violence and instability. Salvadoran gangs “exercise extraordinary levels of social control over the population . . . [,] principally through the use of threats and violence to create a 1 Petitioner does not contest the agency’s determination that his asylum application was time-barred. Thus, he has waived any arguments related to that determination on appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 28(a)(8)(A); Edwards v. City of Goldsboro, 178 F.3d 231, 241 n.6 (4th Cir. 1999). 3 pervasive atmosphere of fear.” A.R. 215. 2 These gangs actively recruit young men and boys in their territories, and those who resist recruitment are generally seen as challenging the gang’s authority and often suffer violence or even death as a result. 3 The two major gangs in El Salvador are MS-13 and Barrio-18. 4 In September 2012, Petitioner, then a teenager, joined MS-13. 5 Within a few months of joining MS-13, he realized he had made a mistake, as the gang …
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