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2 

JOHNSON v. ARTEAGA-MARTINEZ 

Opinion of the Court 

I 
Respondent  Antonio  Arteaga-Martinez  is  a  citizen  of
Mexico.  He admits that he has entered the United States 
without  inspection  four  times.   He  first  entered  in  March 
2001 and was detained at the border and removed; he reen-
tered in April of that year.  Ten years later, in 2011, he left 
the country to care for his sick mother, reentering in July 
of the following year.  The Government again detained him 
at  the  border,  determined  he  was  inadmissible,  and  re-
moved him. 

Arteaga-Martinez  represents  that,  after  returning  to
Mexico, he was beaten violently by members of a criminal 
street  gang.    Fearing  that  he  would  be  persecuted  or  tor-
tured again with the acquiescence of government officials,
he reentered the United States in September 2012.

In  May  2018,  U. S.  Immigration  and  Customs  Enforce-
ment (ICE) issued a warrant for Arteaga-Martinez’s arrest.
By  then,  he  had  been  living  and  working  in  the  United 
States for nearly six years and was expecting the birth of 
his first child.  He had no criminal record aside from minor 
traffic violations.  ICE detained Arteaga-Martinez without
any opportunity for bond and reinstated his earlier removal 
order. 

Arteaga-Martinez applied for withholding of removal un-
der §1231(b)(3), as well as relief under regulations imple-
menting the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, 
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Dec. 10,
1984, S. Treaty Doc. No. 100–20, 1465 U. N. T. S. 113.  The 
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) referred Arteaga-
Martinez  to  an  asylum  officer,  who  found  that  Arteaga-
Martinez’s testimony was credible and that he had estab-
lished a reasonable fear of persecution or torture.  As a re-
sult, DHS referred Arteaga-Martinez’s claims for adjudica-
tion  by  an  immigration  judge  in  what  we  have  called 
“withholding-only  proceedings.”  Guzman  Chavez,  594 
U. S.,  at  ___  (slip  op.,  at  6).    Pending  these  proceedings,