NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit Chicago, Illinois 60604 Submitted May 1, 2019* Decided May 1, 2019 Before FRANK H. EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER, Circuit Judge AMY J. ST. EVE, Circuit Judge No. 18-3552 WENCESLAO ARREDONDO, Petition for Review of an Order of the Petitioner, Board of Immigration Appeals. v. No. A089-732-135 WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General of the United States, Respondent. ORDER Wenceslao Arredondo, a 49-year-old Mexican citizen, challenges the denial of his application for withholding of removal based on his fear of persecution or torture from cartels if he returns to Mexico. He argues that he did not receive a fair hearing before an immigration judge. We deny his petition for review. * We have agreed to decide the case without oral argument because the briefs and record adequately present the facts and legal arguments, and oral argument would not significantly aid the court. FED. R. APP. P. 34(a)(2)(C). No. 18-3552 Page 2 In 2017, Arredondo was convicted of a felony forgery offense. KY. REV. STAT. ANN. § 516.030. Four days later, the Department of Homeland Security charged him as removable for having been convicted of an aggravated felony. 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii), § 1101(a)(43)(R). Arredondo requested withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture based on his fear of returning to Mexico. An asylum officer found that Arredondo had a credible fear of persecution and referred his case to an immigration judge for further proceedings. At the hearing, Arredondo testified via televideo about a two-year period (1986 to 1988) when he was forced by farm owners to work on their marijuana farm in northwest Mexico. The farm owners, he suspected, are affiliated with the Sinaloa Cartel. The details are sparse, but Arredondo said that he was not allowed to leave, not paid for his work, and not permitted contact with his family. He was also physically abused several times. After two years at the farm, Arredondo managed to flee to the mountains with money that he stole from the farm owners. He initially went into hiding, but over the next few years moved about between central and northern Mexico. Fearing that the cartel would catch up to him, he eventually entered the United States without inspection in 1992. He has lived in the United States ever since (other than a year spent visiting his sick mother). He fears returning to Mexico, he explained, because the cartel has become more organized and would exact revenge for the money that he stole 30 years ago. He added that in 1997 his sister had received a threatening phone call from an unknown caller, saying that Arredondo had been kidnapped (even though by this time he was in the United States) and demanding a ransom. The immigration judge denied Arredondo’s application for relief from removal. The IJ first determined that Arredondo’s felony forgery offense was not a “particularly serious crime” ...
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