PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT ______ No. 19-3658 ______ RICARDO JAVIER BLANCO, Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ______ On Petition for Review from an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (Board No. A201-664-023) Immigration Judge: D’Anna H. Freeman ______ Argued April 23, 2020 Before: PORTER, RENDELL and FISHER, Circuit Judges. (Opinion Filed: July 24, 2020) Gary H. Levin Aaron B. Rabinowitz [Argued] Baker & Hostetler 2929 Arch Street 12th Floor, Cira Centre Philadelphia, PA 19104 Counsel for Petitioner Joseph H. Hunt, Assistant Attorney General Bernard A. Joseph, Senior Litigation Counsel Enitan Otunla [Argued] United States Department of Justice Office of Immigration Litigation P.O. Box 878 Ben Franklin Station Washington, DC 20044 Counsel for Respondent ______ OPINION OF THE COURT ______ FISHER, Circuit Judge. Ricardo Javier Blanco, a citizen of Honduras, is a member of Honduras’s Liberty and Refoundation (“LIBRE”) Party, an anti-corruption political party that opposes the current Honduran president. After participating in six political marches, he was abducted by the Honduran police and beaten, on and off, for twelve hours. He was let go but received death threats over the next several months until he fled to the United States. He applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). The Immigration Judge (“IJ”) denied all relief, and the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirmed. Blanco now petitions for review of the agency’s decision, arguing that the BIA and IJ erred in denying his 2 asylum and withholding of removal claims on the basis that his treatment did not rise to the level of persecution. He also argues that it was improper to require him to corroborate his testimony to prove his CAT claim. Because the agency misapplied our precedent when determining whether Blanco had established past persecution, and because it did not follow the three-part inquiry we established in Abdulai v. Ashcroft, 239 F.3d 542, 554 (3d Cir. 2001), before requiring Blanco to corroborate his CAT claim testimony, we will grant the petition, vacate the BIA’s decision, and remand for further proceedings. I. Background A. Blanco’s Experience in Honduras Ricardo Blanco is a citizen of Honduras. Beginning in 2016, Blanco participated in six marches with the LIBRE Party, an anti-corruption political party. Blanco’s sixth march was on November 27, 2017, the day after Juan Orlando Hernández—whom the LIBRE Party opposed—won the presidential election. At that march, four Honduran police officers arrested Blanco, put a mask over his head, and took him to an abandoned house. They held him at the house for approximately twelve hours and beat him multiple times, for forty to sixty minutes each time. During the beatings, the police threatened to kill Blanco and his family and warned him not to participate in any further LIBRE Party marches. They also used racial slurs against Blanco. After the twelve hours, they left him in an abandoned lot. From there, he was taken to a hospital for evaluation. He did not have any ...
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