United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit No. 17-1634 LUIS ELIAS SANABRIA MORALES, Petitioner, v. WILLIAM P. BARR, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. PETITION FOR REVIEW OF AN ORDER OF THE BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS Before Howard, Chief Judge, Lynch and Thompson, Circuit Judges. Ilana Etkin Greenstein, American Immigration Lawyers' Association, Gregory Romanovsky, and Romanovsky Law Offices, on brief for petitioner. Enitan Omotayo Otunla, Trial Attorney, Office of Immigration Litigation, Joseph H. Hunt, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, and Zoe J. Heller, Senior Litigation Counsel, on brief for respondent. July 24, 2020 LYNCH, Circuit Judge. Luis Elias Sanabria Morales petitions for review of a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA") to deny his application for deferral of removal under the United Nations Convention Against Torture ("CAT"). We deny the petition. I. Sanabria was born in Venezuela on August 7, 1972. He last entered the United States on November 5, 2012, and was convicted of heroin trafficking in 2014. On January 21, 2015, the Department of Homeland Security ("DHS") served Sanabria with a notice of intent to issue a final administrative removal order that informed him that he was subject to administrative removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1228(b). The notice alleged that Sanabria was removable under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii) as an alien convicted of an aggravated felony as defined by 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(B). On February 2, 2015, Sanabria requested withholding of removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3) or CAT protection. He submitted a statement that claimed he feared that drug traffickers who forced him to smuggle drugs to the United States would retaliate against him if he returned to Venezuela. He also claimed he feared persecution, torture, and death because of his earlier membership in a Venezuelan opposition political party called COPEI. On February 17, 2015, DHS issued a final administrative - 2 - removal order and warrant of removal against Sanabria that found him removable based on his aggravated felony conviction and ineligible for any discretionary relief. On June 30, 2016, a DHS asylum officer conducted a reasonable fear interview of Sanabria. The officer found that Sanabria's "testimony was sufficiently detailed, consistent and plausible in material respects" and found it credible. Sanabria was placed into withholding-only proceedings and referred to an immigration judge ("IJ"). On August 29, 2016, the IJ gave Sanabria a two-week continuance to file his application and suggested that he find a lawyer. On September 14, 2016, the IJ gave Sanabria another two- week continuance because he was still looking for a lawyer. On September 28, 2016, Sanabria told the IJ that he "talked to one attorney and he promised to visit me this week." The IJ gave Sanabria another three-week continuance. On October 19, 2016, the IJ asked Sanabria if he was still looking for a lawyer. Sanabria answered, "I'm going to do this myself, your honor." He then repeated, "I'm going to represent myself." On the same day, Sanabria filed an asylum application seeking withholding of removal and submitted ...
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals