Source: http://ri.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.20190916_0000223.C01.htm/qx
Timestamp: 2020-06-03 07:54:30
Document Index: 795429566

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 208', '§ 1158', '§ 241', '§ 1231', '§ 212', '§ 1182']

FindACase™ | Loja-Paguay v. Barr
Loja-Paguay v. Barr
JOSE ANTONIO LOJA-PAGUAY, Petitioner,
WILLIAM P. BARR,[*] UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent.
Daniel T. Welch, Kevin MacMurray, and MacMurray & Associates on brief for petitioner.
Brendan P. Hogan, Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Immigration Litigation, Joseph H. Hunt, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, and Cindy S. Ferrier, Assistant Director, on brief for respondent.
Jose Antonio Loja-Paguay, a native and citizen of Ecuador, seeks review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decision affirming an Immigration Judge's (IJ) denial of his claims for asylum under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) § 208, 8 U.S.C. § 1158, withholding of removal under INA § 241(b)(3), 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3), and protection under Article 3 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture (CAT) [1]
The IJ found that Loja was not a credible witness based on several discrepancies in his testimony that were not adequately explained, and the combination of that finding and the remaining evidence demonstrated that Loja had not met his burden for any relief. As to CAT relief, independent of Loja's testimony, the IJ found there was nothing to show Loja would be tortured upon his return to Ecuador. The IJ ordered him removed. The BIA affirmed.
Loja argues to us that the BIA erred in determining he had not meaningfully challenged the adverse credibility finding, in affirming that finding, and in failing to consider all the evidence. Because there was substantial evidence supporting the BIA's affirmance of the IJ's decision, we deny the petition for review.
Loja entered the United States on January 11, 2013, near Hidalgo, Texas, and was apprehended by immigration officials. Loja stated that he entered the United States because "he was traveling to New Jersey to reside and to seek employment for approximately two years." An asylum officer conducted a credible fear interview with Loja in Spanish.[2] Loja stated that he could not return to Ecuador because of a series of events that took place in November 2012.
According to Loja, on November 15, 2012, two police officers entered his food store and "said [he] had to sell drugs and guns for them." Loja refused. On November 20, 2012, the two officers returned with a third officer and told Loja that "if [he] did not sell the drugs and guns," the officers would kill him. The officers warned Loja not to tell anyone else what they wanted. When the asylum officer asked Loja why he did not report this incident to the police, Loja gave two reasons: that the police in Ecuador are corrupt and that his neighbors had told him the police killed his father. After the incident, Loja's neighbor told him that one of the police officers was the same person who killed his father. Loja closed his store but reopened it on November 25, 2012. That day, the officers returned and beat Loja until he was unconscious while saying, "we are going to kill you." Loja did not report this incident because he feared the police and now "knew that one of them killed [his] father." Loja left Ecuador on November 27, 2012.
On February 15, 2013, the Department of Homeland Security served Loja with a Notice to Appear in removal proceedings, charging that he was inadmissible under § 212(a) (7) (A) (i) (I) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a) (7) (A) (i) (I). On April 16, 2014, Loja conceded removability and stated his intent to seek asylum, withholding of removal, voluntary departure, and relief under the CAT.
That day, Loja filed an application for asylum. The affidavit attached to the asylum application described the same three events involving the police that he had recounted in the credible fear interview. Loja again said that he fled Ecuador out of fear that the police officers would return and kill him "like they killed [his] father."
At his merits hearing in 2017, Loja testified with the assistance of an interpreter. Loja told the IJ about the same three incidents involving police officers, and stated that he did not report the incidents due to police corruption in Ecuador. But he did not say that one of those officers had killed his ...