In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 18-1183 PEDRO RIVAS-PENA, Petitioner, v. JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS III, Attorney General of the United States, Respondent. ____________________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. No. A044 760 094 ____________________ ARGUED JULY 6, 2018 — DECIDED AUGUST 21, 2018 ____________________ Before SYKES, HAMILTON, and BRENNAN, Circuit Judges. HAMILTON, Circuit Judge. Pedro Rivas-Pena has been a law- ful permanent resident of the United States and is a citizen of Mexico. He faces removal to Mexico because of a state drug- trafficking conviction. He has applied for deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture, alleging that he fears returning to Mexico because members of Los Zetas cartel con- sider him responsible for the loss of drugs and currency worth 2 No. 18-1183 more than half a million dollars. An immigration judge dis- missed as “speculative” Rivas-Pena’s fear of retribution from the cartel, denied his application for Convention Against Tor- ture deferral, and ordered him removed to Mexico. The Board of Immigration Appeals upheld the judge’s decision, and Ri- vas-Pena petitions for review. Because neither the immigra- tion judge nor the Board articulated any basis for disagreeing with an expert opinion that corroborates Rivas-Pena’s fear of torture, we grant the petition for review and remand for fur- ther proceedings. I. Factual and Procedural Background The facts most salient to Rivas-Pena’s claim for Conven- tion Against Torture deferral are undisputed. Rivas-Pena, who is now 44 years old, entered the United States as a lawful permanent resident in 1996. He was convicted of drug-related crimes in 1997 and 2017. For the latter conviction—possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, 720 ILCS 570/401(a)(2)(A)—he was sentenced to eight years in prison. But he was released on parole the same day that he was sen- tenced because he had accumulated substantial good-time credit during three and a half years of pretrial detention. (The reason for the delay is unclear.) He was then transferred to federal immigration custody and charged with removability based on his convictions for (1) a controlled substance offense, 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(B)(i), and (2) an aggravated felony, § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii). Rivas-Pena conceded that he was remova- ble on both grounds but applied—based on his fear of torture by Los Zetas cartel—for deferral of removal under the Con- vention Against Torture, 8 C.F.R. § 1208.17. At his hearing before the immigration judge, Rivas-Pena explained that he became involved with Los Zetas through a No. 18-1183 3 former classmate named Salvador Estrada. Rivas-Pena had at- tended middle school with Estrada in Mexico, and they recon- nected in Chicago in December 2011. Rivas-Pena was under- employed at the time, and Estrada supposedly ran a construc- tion business. Rivas-Pena asked Estrada for work. Estrada did not have work for Rivas-Pena, but he offered “good pay” to rent storage space in Rivas-Pena’s garage. Rivas-Pena ac- cepted this proposal, and the next week two men delivered twenty toolboxes to the garage. Rivas-Pena said he ...
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