United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit No. 18-1314 JAIME EDUARDO URGILEZ MENDEZ, Petitioner, v. MATTHEW G. WHITAKER, ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL,* Respondent. PETITION FOR REVIEW OF AN ORDER OF THE BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS Before Barron and Selya, Circuit Judges, and Katzmann, Judge.** Glenn L. Formica, Elyssa N. Williams, and Formica Williams, P.C. on brief for petitioner. Chad A. Readler, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, Keith I. McManus, Assistant Director, Office of Immigration Litigation, and Rosanne M. Perry, Trial Attorney, Office of Immigration Litigation, on brief for respondent. * Pursuant to Fed. R. App. P. 43(c)(2), Acting Attorney General Matthew G. Whitaker has been substituted for former Attorney General Jefferson B. Sessions, III as the respondent. **Of the United States Court of International Trade, sitting by designation. December 11, 2018 SELYA, Circuit Judge. The petitioner, Jaime Eduardo Urgilez Mendez, is an Ecuadorian national. He seeks judicial review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) dismissing his application for asylum.1 After careful consideration, we deny his petition. The relevant facts are straightforward. On April 19, 2013, the petitioner entered the United States illegally at Laredo, Texas. In short order, the Department of Homeland Security initiated removal proceedings against him. The petitioner conceded removability and applied for asylum. He premised his asylum application on a claim that he had been persecuted in the past (and, thus, feared future persecution) by gang members on account of his political opinion and/or membership in a particular social group. At a hearing held before an immigration judge (IJ) on April 12, 2017, the petitioner testified that while in Ecuador, he had surreptitiously gone to the police to report gang activity in his town. Specifically, he told the police that gang members were extorting money from his family and other community members. The record contains nothing that would indicate that either the 1 The petitioner also unsuccessfully applied for withholding of removal and protection under the United Nations Convention Against Torture. In his petition for judicial review, however, he challenges only the dismissal of his asylum application. Consequently, we make no further reference to the other forms of relief that the petitioner originally sought. - 3 - petitioner's views about gang activity or his role as an informant were known outside of official circles. By the same token, the record contains no hint that the petitioner voiced his accusations publicly. Sometime in 2004 — the record is tenebrous as to how much time elapsed after the petitioner's private conversations with the police — the petitioner was stabbed by a gang member known as "Shaggy." His injuries required significant medical treatment, and the attack left the petitioner emotionally traumatized. When asked what prompted the assault, the petitioner expressed uncertainty. He eventually speculated that "maybe it could have been because I had gone to the police." And even though he had approached the police in secret, he ruminated that "maybe [Shaggy] knew." This suspicion apparently derived from the petitioner's unsubstantiated belief that "the ...
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