Sandro Vukosavljevic v. Attorney General United States


NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT ___________ No. 18-3569 ___________ SANDRO VUKOSAVLJEVIC, Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Respondent ____________________________________ On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (Agency No. A070-412-835) Immigration Judge: John P. Ellington ____________________________________ Submitted Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a) July 15, 2019 Before: GREENAWAY, JR., RESTREPO and FUENTES, Circuit Judges (Opinion filed: July 23, 2019) ___________ OPINION* ___________ PER CURIAM Sandro Vukosavljevic petitions for review of a final order of removal. For the reasons that follow, we will deny the petition for review. * This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not constitute binding precedent. Vukosavljevic, a native and citizen of Bosnia-Herzegovina, was admitted as a refugee to the United States, and he was granted lawful permanent resident status, effective June 16, 1994. In 2015, Vukosavljevic was convicted in the United States District Court for the District of Maine of two counts of unlawful use of a communication facility to commit a drug trafficking crime, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 843(b), (d), for which he was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 30 months. On October 10, 2017, the Department of Homeland Security charged him in a Notice to Appear as removable pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii), in that after admission he was convicted of an aggravated felony as defined by 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(B) (illicit trafficking in controlled substance); and 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(B)(i), in that after admission he was convicted of any law relating to a controlled substance. Initially, Vukosavljevic argued that his convictions were not drug offenses or aggravated felonies. The Immigration Judge sustained the charges. Vukosavljevic applied for relief from removal, claiming that he would be harmed by the Bosnian- Herzegovinian government and/or Muslims who dominate that government because of his Serbian-Orthodox religion. At a hearing on June 6, 2018, Vukosavljevic testified that he is a practicing Serbian-Orthodox Christian and that he came to the United States because of the war in Bosnia. He testified that, as a child, he migrated from Bosnia to Herzegovina and was mistreated there on account of his religion. His family eventually migrated to Croatia, which is predominantly Catholic. His family was moved to the Usuwit village, where they lived “among really racist people when it came to the religion and the beliefs.” His parents eventually sought assistance from the United States 2 embassy in Croatia and were granted refugee status. His parents and his brother Sasa are now United States citizens, but he is not. Vukosavljevic testified that the majority of Bosnians are Muslim, and that the war in 1992 was a religious civil war between Serbians, Catholics, and Muslims, fighting each other to claim a part of the country as their own. He has not returned to Bosnia since 1994 because members of his family were killed or their whereabouts are now unknown. He testified that he suffers from post-traumatic ...

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