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w . v i l l a no va . e du/thir dc ir c uit_2004/94* The H onorab le William H . Yohn , United S tates District Judge fo r the Eastern

Distri ct of Pennsy lvania , si tti ng by des ignati on. NOT PRE CEDENT IAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FO R T HE TH IRD CIR CU IT

____________ No. 03-2918

____________ ZHEN LI ANG WENG, Petitioner v. JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GEN ERAL OF THE UNITED STATES

Respondent

____________ On Petiti on for Review from an Ord er of th e Bo ard o f Imm igration Ap peals (Board No. A77-309-155)

____________ Submitte d Under Third Circ uit LAR 34.1(a)

December 7, 2004 Be for e: R EN DE LL and FIS HE R, Circuit Judges , and Y OHN, * Distri ct Judge . (Fil ed December 8, 2004)

____________ OPINI ON OF THE COURT

____________ FIS HE R, Circuit

Judge .2

Zhen Liang Weng, a nati ve and citizen of the People’s Republic of China , was smuggled into the Unite d States in 2000 for a l arge sum paid by Weng’s familywho borrowed the moneyfrom, and stillowe, family members and “loan s harks. ” Weng was granted wit

hholding of removal under t he Convention Agains t Torture by an I mmigrati on Judge in September 2001. I n a decisi on issued J une 10, 2003, the Board of I mmigrati on Appeals (“Board” ) vacat ed the withholding, orderi ng Weng removed. We now deny Weng ’s pe ti ti on f

orre vi ew. This Court must

sustai n the Board’s decisi on if supported bysubstant ial e vidence in th e rec ord . Nen Ying Ch en v. A shcro ft , 368 F.3d 347, 350 (3d Cir. 2004). Weng soug ht pro tection base d on a fea r that he wo uld m ore like ly than no t be tortu red if removed to China. Specifi call y, he feared detention and tort ure by authori ties in rel ation to his illeg al dep arture a s we ll as torture inflicted at the b ehes t of or b y creditors o f his familywith the a cquiesce nce of authoriti es. The Board concluded that while Weng was likel y t o be impris oned for his ill egal departure, he had not shown it was more likel y than not he w ould be torture d in conjun ction therew ith. We ag ree. Wh ile the Board specifically referred only to torture em ployed in the extraction o f confe ssions, we a re sati sfied t

hat the Board revie wed all of the evidence of record and concl uded, as do we, that t he record doe s not show that this indivi dual is more like ly than not to be tort ured for reasons ot

her than t

he extra ction of

confessi ons. Additionall y, while we appreci ate the descri ption of t

he “snakehead” oper ation f ound in Ch en v. A shcro

ft , 289 F .3d 11 13 (9 th3

Cir. 20 02), d ecision vaca ted, 31 4 F.3 d 99 5 (9th Cir. 20 02), w e agre e w ith the B oard that, on this record, it i s specul ative to concl ude that Weng would likely

be tort ured at t he behest of or

by cr editor s to for ce repay ment of the debt related to the smuggling. Acc or di ngl y , t

he pe ti ti on f

orre vi ew wi llbe DENI ED.

________________________