USCA11 Case: 22-11867 Document: 30-1 Date Filed: 03/13/2023 Page: 1 of 22 [DO NOT PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 22-11867 Non-Argument Calendar ____________________ WINDELL GORDON, Petitioner, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ____________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals Agency No. A078-085-496 ____________________ USCA11 Case: 22-11867 Document: 30-1 Date Filed: 03/13/2023 Page: 2 of 22 2 Opinion of the Court 22-11867 Before LUCK, BRASHER, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Windell Gordon petitions for review of the Board of Immi- gration Appeals’ order affirming the denial of his application for re- lief under the Convention Against Torture. After careful review, we partly dismiss and partly deny Gordon’s petition. FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY Gordon is a Jamaican native and citizen. He came to the United States in 1997 on a student visa. Ten years later, he was convicted of cocaine-trafficking offenses and sentenced to 156 months’ imprisonment. Gordon was released from prison in 2015—after successfully seeking a two-level sentence reduction— and the government then ordered him deported as a noncitizen convicted of an aggravated felony. After an asylum officer deter- mined Gordon had established a reasonable fear of persecution, he applied for deferral of removal under the Convention.1 The Record Evidence The immigration judge held two merits hearings on Gor- don’s application. Gordon testified, as did his cousin Kingsley 1 Gordon also applied for withholding of removal under 8 U.S.C. section 1231(b)(3)(A), but he conceded his ineligibility before the immigration judge. USCA11 Case: 22-11867 Document: 30-1 Date Filed: 03/13/2023 Page: 3 of 22 22-11867 Opinion of the Court 3 Gayle and Dr. Damion Blake, an expert on “the intersection of pol- itics, government, organized crime, and gang violence” in Jamaica. Gordon testified that his best friend growing up—Reeve Bullock, called Bulla—operated a “small time” drug trafficking or- ganization that purchased marijuana from police officers and dis- tributed the drugs locally. As Bulla’s close, trusted friend, Gordon was often present during these purchases and thus recognizable to the officers involved. People in Jamaica (and in Bulla’s organiza- tion) knew him by the alias Panther. After Gordon left for the United States, Bulla’s trafficking or- ganization graduated to cocaine—and expanded its market to other Caribbean nations and the United States. Gordon testified that, as the operation expanded, so did involvement of (and investment by) government officials of many stripes—including police officers, im- migration and customs officials, and members of parliament. Eventually, Gordon needed money and so re-engaged with Bulla’s organization. He mostly worked with Edwin Murphy— whose job it was to retrieve the cocaine Bulla’s organization im- ported using cruise ship workers—to distribute the drugs in Flor- ida. But Gordon could also name Jamaican officials he’d either seen or spoken to by telephone. Bulla’s brother-in-law, Delroy Hislop, was involved too. In 2004, Hislop was robbed of $130,000 and killed (in a car rented in Gordon’s name) during a botched drug deal in Tampa. USCA11 Case: 22-11867 Document: 30-1 …
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