Source: https://casetext.com/case/alvarado-v-gonzales-7
Timestamp: 2020-06-06 07:51:18
Document Index: 770124041

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1101', '§ 1251', '§ 1003', '§ 1103', '§ 1103', '§ 1003', '§ 1003', '§ 1003', '§ 3', '§ 1003', '§ 1101', '§ 208', '§ 1101', '§ 1158', '§ 208', 'art 1', 'art. 2']

Alvarado v. Gonzales, 449 F.3d 915 | Casetext Search + Citator
Id. Here the BIA never added its own reasons for affirming the IJ. Instead, it offered a perfunctory…
Castaneda-Castillo v. Gonzales
See In re Rodriguez-Majano, 19 I. N. Dec. 811, 815 (BIA 1988) (stating that "harm which may result…
Full title:Roberto Ferrer MIRANDA ALVARADO; Madeleine Janet Morales Lopez…
Date published: Mar 21, 2006
449 F.3d 915 (9th Cir. 2006)
441 F.3d 750
holding that evidence that a translator assisted in interrogations of suspected guerillas raised the inference that he participated in persecution, shifting the burden to the translator to prove he did not
Summary of this case from Alvarado-Mayen v. Lynch
Roberto Ferrer MIRANDA ALVARADO; Madeleine Janet Morales Lopez, Petitioners, v. Alberto R. GONZALES, Attorney General, Respondent.
Nadeem H. Makada, Burlingame, CA, for the petitioner. Thomas K. Ragland and Marshall Tamor Golding (on the brief), United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Office of Immigration Litigation, Washington, D.C., for the respondent.
We apply a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that forbids the granting of asylum and withholding of removal to individuals who participate in the persecution of others on a protected ground, even if they themselves have a well-founded fear of persecution should they return. Roberto Ferrer Miranda Alvarado ("Miranda") sought asylum and withholding of removal, but an Immigration Judge (IJ) held that Miranda was barred from relief because he had "assisted in the persecution of others . . . on account of their political opinion." See 8 U.S.C. §§ 1101(a)(42) (defining refugees to exclude "any person who ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the persecution of any person on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion"), 1158(b)(2)(A)(i) (barring such persecutors from asylum), 1231(b)(3)(B)(i) (barring such persecutors from withholding of removal). We hold that the IJ properly decided that Miranda "assisted in persecution" and is thus ineligible for asylum and withholding of removal.
PETITION FOR REVIEW DENIED. --------------- Notes: Madeleine Lopez, Miranda's wife, is derivatively included in Miranda's asylum application and was thus also barred. Where appropriate, we refer to the two petitioners collectively as "Miranda." Laipenieks addressed former 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(19) and held that the "ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the persecution of any person" standard "requires that ... the evidence establish[ ] that the individual in question personally ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the persecution of individuals." 750 F.2d at 1431 (emphasis added); see also id. at 1431-32 ("[A]ctive personal involvement in persecutorial acts needs to be demonstrated.... [P]roof of personal active assistance or participation in persecutorial acts[is required].").
The former Immigration and Nationalization Service (INS) charged Miranda with being present in this country without being admitted or paroled. At the removal hearing, Miranda admitted the allegations and conceded removability, but requested asylum and withholding of removal. The IJ denied Miranda's application, concluding that:
On March 1, 2003, the INS ceased to exist and its functions were transferred to the newly-created Department of Homeland Security. See Aguilera-Ruiz v. Ashcroft, 348 F.3d 835, 835 n. * (9th Cir.2003). For the sake of consistency, we refer to the INS in this opinion. 3. The IJ's timeline is not precisely accurate, as Miranda testified that he attempted formally to resign in 1988 and then sought anti-terrorist training. Miranda does not argue that he was compelled to remain in the police force on account of factors other than duty, police regulations governing resignations, and career considerations. 4. There are cases in which an IJ's decision will simply apply BIA precedent that is subject to Chevron deference. See, e.g., Damko v. INS, 430 F.3d 626, 634 n. 13 (2d Cir.2005) ("[T]he IJ did not engage in independent statutory construction, but rather relied on the BIA's prior construction of the INA to which we, in turn, accord deference."). In its thirteen lines of argument and three footnotes, the government's brief does not cite any agency decisions to which it asks us to defer. A subsequent precedential opinion by the Attorney General, In re A-H-, 23 I. & N. Dec. 774, 2005 WL 1541121 (A.G.2005), does discuss the persecutor bar here at issue. A-H-'s factual posture differs from the one before us, however, in that the Attorney General addressed the relief applications of "a self-proclaimed leader-in-exile of the Islamic Salvation Front of Algeria." Id. at 775, 2005 WL 1541121. Accordingly, the focus of the Attorney General's analysis was on the proximity of a leader to persecutory acts. A-H held that "[t]he plain meaning of the relevant words in the statute is broad enough to encompass aid and support provided by a political leader to those who carry out the goals of his group, including statements of incitement or encouragement and actions that result in advancing the violent activities of the group." Id. at 784. This precise holding of A-H is not here relevant; the more general principles enunciated in A-H concern personal culpability overall and are fully consistent with our prior case law, as developed below. 5. Inconsistent results can, however, implicate constitutional concerns. See generally Njuguna v. Ashcroft, 374 F.3d 765, 771 n. 4 (9th Cir.2004) ("The INS must give each asylum case individualized scrutiny, but it is a foundation of the rule of law that similarly situated individuals be treated similarly.... [W]e have previously noted inconsistent treatment of asylum applicants. See Wang v. Ashcroft, 341 F.3d 1015, 1019 n. 2 (9th Cir.2003) (greeting with incredulity the INS's assertion that a reviewing court need not concern itself with the inconsistency [created] where the INS denied asylum to a woman subjected to coercive population control methods, but granted asylum to her husband on the basis of the woman's experience)."). 6. The government has invoked only the Chevron deference doctrine. It has not contended here that "individual IJ decisions may be entitled to the lesser form of deference established under Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. 134, 65 S.Ct. 161, 89 L.Ed. 124 (1944), to the extent that such decisions possess `those factors which give [the agency's interpretation] power to persuade, if lacking power to control.' Id. at 140." Lin, 416 F.3d at 191 (noting but not deciding the question); see also Zhang v. Gonzales, 426 F.3d 540, 544 (2d Cir.2005) ("An IJ's interpretation of ambiguous provisions of the INA is entitled no more deference than the inherent persuasiveness of the IJ's view commands."). Even assuming that Skidmore should be applied, we conclude that the IJ's brief and conclusory decision in this case, which referred to none of the relevant BIA or federal-court persecutor caselaw, does not adequately exhibit the requisite Skidmore factors—"the thoroughness evident in its consideration, the validity of its reasoning, its consistency with earlier and later pronouncements, and all those factors which give it power to persuade," 323 U.S. at 140, 65 S.Ct. 161—to warrant Skidmore deference. Cf. Gao v. Gonzales, 440 F.3d 62, 65 n. 2 (2d Cir.2006) ("[T]he present case does not require us to resolve [the Skidmore deference] issue because the Skidmore factors would not counsel deference to the particular IJ decision at issue."). 7. Deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) is not so precluded. See, e.g., Singh v. Gonzales, 417 F.3d 736, 738 n. 1 (7th Cir.2005). Miranda, however, has not applied for CAT relief. 8.
even if Mr. Miranda did not interrogate Shining Path detainees and apply electric shocks or beat them, he was a necessary part of the interrogation. Without his services as a Quechua interpreter, the interrogations could not proceed. With his services, they did proceed. Over six years, the respondent participated in such interrogations two to three times per month or approximately 144 to 216 times. He did not protest his role at any time despite his stated qualms and he did not seek to resign from police service until 1990, even assuming that his resignation application was motivated by the psychic wear and tear of his role in the interrogations or his disagreement with them.
Neither of those conditions is present when the BIA affirms an IJ's decision without opinion under the streamlining regulations. In such cases, the BIA does not explicitly adopt a statutory interpretation. Indeed, we do not know on what grounds the BIA decided the case, because its affirmance "approves the result reached in the decision below[, but] does not necessarily imply approval of all of the reasoning of that decision." 8 C.F.R. § 1003.1(e)(4)(ii). At the time relevant to this case, Congress delegated plenary authority to the Attorney General to enforce the INA. See 8 U.S.C. § 1103(a) (2000). The statute empowered the Attorney General to establish regulations to carry out that statutory delegation and granted him supervisory authority over INS employees. Id. § 1103(a)(2)-(3). Pursuant to those statutory powers, the Attorney General granted the BIA authority to issue precedential decisions binding on all IJs. See 8 C.F.R. § 1003.1(d)(1). Rather than exercise the BIA's power under 8 C.F.R. § 1003.1(d)(1), cf. Aguirre-Aguirre 526 U.S. at 425, 119 S.Ct. 1439 (citing the regulatory antecedent of § 1003.1(d)(1), 8 C.F.R. § 3.1(d)(1) (1998)), however, a single BIA member deciding to streamline a case only exercises his or her power to decide if "[t]he issues on appeal are squarely controlled by existing" precedent or "are not so substantial that the case warrants the issuance of a written opinion." 8 C.F.R. § 1003.1(e)(4)(i).
Under these circumstances, an IJ decision, although presented as the final agency determination to be reviewed in federal court, is not legally relevant to any future decisionmaking, including by the very IJ who issued it. See Lin v. U.S. Dep't of Justice, 416 F.3d 184, 190 (2d Cir.2005) ("Absent the power to issue binding decisions, IJs cannot, themselves, be said to possess the requisite ability to issue, on behalf of the Attorney General, a `rule' carrying the force of law — because one of the hallmarks of a legal `rule' is that it will, in fact, apply equally in all cases of a similar kind."). "[W]ere we to accord Chevron deference to non-binding IJ statutory interpretations, we could find ourselves in the impossible position of having to uphold as reasonable on Tuesday one construction that is completely antithetical to another construction we had affirmed as reasonable the Monday before. Such a scenario cannot be countenanced in a system of law." Id.; see also id. at 191 ("There is ... no reason to believe that an IJ's summarily affirmed decision contains the sort of authoritative and considered statutory construction that Chevron deference was designed to honor.").
In sum, we hold that Chevron deference does not apply to an IJ's statutory interpretation summarily affirmed by the BIA.
Under the INA, any person who has "ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in" persecution of any person on account of a protected ground is ineligible for asylum and withholding of removal. 8 U.S.C. §§ 1101(a)(42), 1158(b)(2)(A)(i), 1231(b)(3)(B)(i); see also 8 C.F.R. § 208.13(c)(2)(i)(E) (mandatory denials). The INA does not define "persecution," but our case law defines it as "the infliction of suffering or harm upon those who differ . . . in a way regarded as offensive." Fisher v. INS, 79 F.3d 955, 961 (9th Cir. 1996) (en banc) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Miranda challenges the denial of relief in his case on two separate grounds: First, he argues that the IJ used the wrong criteria to determine whether his role as a translator during interrogations in which detainees were tortured constitutes assistance in persecution. Second, he argues that even if his translation work does amount to assistance, the persecution was not on account of political opinion. We address each argument in turn.
Applying Fedorenko to the same statutory language here at issue, we recently considered the persecutor exception to the asylum and withholding of removal provisions. Vukmirovic v. Ashcroft, 362 F.3d 1247 (9th Cir.2004), held that an IJ failed to conduct a sufficiently particularized evaluation to determine the petitioner's responsibility for persecution committed by other Bosnian Serbs. Id. at 1252. We emphasized two requirements for establishing culpability under the persecutor exception. First, relying on Laipenieks v. INS, 750 F.2d 1427 (9th Cir.1985), which considered similar statutory language, we stated that "individual accountability must be established." Vukmirovic, 362 F.3d at 1252. We went on, secondly, to evaluate the surrounding circumstances, including whether the alleged persecutor was acting in self-defense, to determine whether the applicant had assisted or otherwise participated in persecution. Id. at 1252-53. Vukmirovic's petition for review was granted because we determined that he did act in self-defense and that, accordingly, his acts harmful to Croats did not constitute persecution. Id. at 1253.
Also informative is Hernandez v. Reno, 258 F.3d 806 (8th Cir.2001), which concerned a Guatemalan man forcibly recruited by guerrillas and ordered, under pain of death, to shoot at peasants. Hernandez held that "[u]nder Fedorenko, a court faced with difficult `line-drawing problems' should engage in a particularized evaluation in order to determine whether an individual's behavior was culpable to such a degree that he could be fairly deemed to have assisted or participated in persecution." Id. at 813; see also Vukmirovic, 362 F.3d at 1252 (quoting from this passage and "agree[ing] with the Eighth Circuit"); cf. In re A-H, 23 I. & N. Dec. 774, 785 (A.G.2005) (citing Hernandez with approval for the proposition that "[i]t is appropriate to look at the totality of the relevant conduct in determining whether the bar to eligibility applies."). As in Fedorenko, the length of time over which the person was involved in the acts, the kind of threats used to compel assistance, and the efforts undertaken to escape (or the lack thereof in Fedorenko's case) were all significant, according to the Hernandez court, in weighing individual culpability. Id. at 813-14. But cf. Bah v. Ashcroft, 341 F.3d 348, 351 (5th Cir.2003) (per curiam) (holding that "the alien's personal motivation is not relevant" where Bah joined an insurgent group in Sierra Leone under threat of death and three times attempted to escape).
Hernandez, 258 F.3d at 814. Aside from Bah, courts interpreting the relevant INA provisions have used caution in applying Fedorenko's reading of the similarly-worded DPA to mean that "an individual's service as a concentration camp armed guard — whether voluntary or involuntary— ma[kes] him ineligible [for relief]." 449 U.S. at 512, 101 S.Ct. 737 (emphasis added). See Xie v. INS, 434 F.3d 136, 141, 144 (2d Cir. 2006) (concluding that "we find it unlikely that the phrase `assisted in persecution' implicitly includes a voluntariness requirement in one statute but not the other" but assessing the petitioner's voluntariness nonetheless and "emphatically" leaving open the possibility that redemptive behavior may be relevant to "whether an applicant has assisted in persecution"); Hernandez, 258 F.3d at 814 (faulting the BIA for failing to "consider Hernandez's uncontroverted testimony that his involvement with ORPA was at all times involuntary and compelled by threats of death and that he shared no persecutory motives with the guerrillas"). As will appear, this case does not require us to decide whether even actions that result from direct, immediate, and extreme "physical[ ] or psychological[ ]" compulsion, see Xie, 434 F.3d at 143, or are accompanied by frequent redemptive behavior such as fostering escape attempts, can be sufficiently culpable to preclude asylum and withholding of removal eligibility. Laipenieks, which emphasized the need for precision along this range of personal involvement, has on occasion been read to require a persecutor personally to inflict injury, rather than to behave in some capacity that made it possible for others to engage in brutal acts. See, e.g, United States v. Reimer, 356 F.3d 456, 462 n. 6 (2d Cir.2004) (collecting cases on the two sides of this supposed divide); Hammer v. INS, 195 F.3d 836, 844 (6th Cir.1999) ("To the extent that those cases [including Laipenieks] would require the government to prove the alien's personal participation or active assistance in specific acts of brutality ... we decline to follow them."); Schellong v. INS, 805 F.2d 655, 661 (7th Cir.1986) ("Insofar as these cases [including Laipenieks] hold that personal involvement in atrocities is necessary to have assisted in persecution ... they conflict with Fedorenko."). In Hammer, "[t]he BIA found that [the petitioner] served willingly as an armed SS concentration camp guard," 195 F.3d at 844, and in Schellong the petitioner did "not dispute that he served as a concentration camp guard at Sachsenburg and trained and supervised guards at Dachau." 805 F.2d at 661; see also Kulle v. INS, 825 F.2d 1188, 1192 (7th Cir.1987) (indicating that the petitioner was armed although "Kulle insists he did not have authority to shoot prisoners attempting escape"). The principle Laipenieks established with respect to personal involvement in persecution, however, was simply that Fedorenko, the statutory language, and its legislative history require more than "[m]ere acquiescence or membership in a [persecutory] organization." 750 F.2d at 1431-32. Beyond that, Laipenieks made a fact-specific determination that "the government's evidence failed to establish deportability," id. at 1437, and did not impose a rule that personal infliction of harm is necessary to establish assistance or participation in persecution directly perpetrated by others. Nothing in Laipenieks, consequently, is inconsistent with the results reached in cases such as Hammer, Schellong, and Kulle.
I concur in Part II of the opinion. In this relatively straightforward case, the IJ determined that Miranda had "assisted in the persecution of others ... on account of their political opinion" under 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42), and was thus ineligible for asylum and withholding of removal under 8 U.S.C. §§ 1158(b)(2)(A)(i) and 1231(b)(3)(B)(i). The BIA "streamlined" the case, affirming the result without an opinion. In such a case, we review the IJ's factual determinations for substantial evidence and we review de novo the IJ's legal conclusions. ReyesReyes v. Ashcroft, 384 F.3d 782, 786 (9th Cir.2004). I concur in the holding that substantial evidence supports the IJ's factual determination that Miranda persecuted others on account of their political opinion under our interpretation of the applicable statutes.
Thus, determining whether a petitioner "assisted in persecution" requires a particularized evaluation of both personal involvement and purposeful assistance in order to ascertain culpability. See Vukmirovic, 362 F.3d at 1252; Hernandez, 258 F.3d at 813. This standard does not require actual "trigger-pulling," see In re A-H-, 23 I. & N. Dec. at 784 (stating that the persecutor bar "do[es] not require direct personal involvement in the acts of persecution" (emphasis added)), but "[m]ere acquiescence or membership in an organization," is insufficient to satisfy the persecutor exception. See Vukmirovic, 362 F.3d at 1252 (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Kalubi v. Ashcroft, 364 F.3d 1134, 1139 (9th Cir.2004); Matter of Rodriguez-Majano, 19 I. & N. Dec. 811, 814-15 (BIA 1988) ("[M]ere membership in an organization, even one which engages in persecution, is not sufficient to bar one from relief, but only [sic] if one's action or inaction furthers that persecution in some way."). Although such membership could signal support for the persecutorial aims of others, it does not suffice, standing alone, to establish the requisite personal assistance or participation in persecutorial acts.
Evidence presented to the IJ indicated that Miranda assisted in the persecution of others on account of their political opinion. Specifically, Miranda testified that those interrogated and tortured were members or suspected members of the Shining Path; that "interrogation" was different from questioning a possible suspect; that "[i]nterrogating is asking people where is a certain group, what do they do, investigating their bases, finding out who their boss is, where he lives, who he lives with;" and that of those interrogated "[a]ll of them were only Shining Path." Because these statements were sufficient to raise the inference that individuals were selected for interrogation on the basis of their affiliation or suspected affiliation with an opposition group, not because they themselves were suspected of criminal activity, the burden of proof became Miranda's to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the persecution was not on account of political opinion. See 8 C.F.R. §§ 208.13(c)(2)(ii) (stating with respect to asylum that: "If the evidence indicates that one of the above grounds apply [sic] to the applicant, he or she shall have the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that he or she did not so act."); 208.16(d)(2) ("If the evidence indicates the applicability of one or more of the grounds for denial of withholding enumerated in the Act, the applicant shall have the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that such grounds do not apply.").
The last statement was made in reply to the question "How many of those interrogations were interrogations of suspected terrorists?" 13. Miranda argues that "[i]n the same way that this country has detained and interrogated suspected Al Quaeda sympathizers, Peru could not afford to allow Shining Path members to go free irrespective of the fact that there were no particularized charges of crimes." This contention begs the question of the persecution at issue, as it avoids addressing the torture Miranda assisted. Miranda does not advance the argument that torture becomes lawful in warfare or civil conflict, and there is voluminous authority to the contrary, notably the Convention Against Torture itself, which Peru signed in 1985 and ratified in 1988. See Office of the United Nations High Comm'r for Human Rights, Status of ratification of the Convention against Torture (Nov. 2, 2004), available at http://www.ohchr.org/english/ law/cat-ratify.htm. The Convention's part 1, article 2 states in relevant part: "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture." Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, opened for signature Dec. 10, 1984, pt. 1, art. 2, 1465 U.N.T.S. 85, available at http:// www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/h_cat39.htm. ---------------
On this record, Miranda has not established that the particular persecution in which he was involved — interrogations involving torture — was in direct opposition to acts of terrorism or civil strife. As explained by the BIA in Rodriguez-Majano, "harm which may result incidentally from behavior directed at another goal, the overthrow of a government or, alternatively, the defense of that government against an opponent, is not persecution . . . . We would include in this list [ ] engaging in military actions, the attacking of garrisons, the burning of cars, and the destruction of other property as actions outside the limits of the term `persecution.'" (19 I. & N. Dec. at 815, 1988 WL 235466 (emphasis added)). Unlike the sort of on-the-battlefield conflict discussed in Rodriguez-Majano, torturing individuals selected for their affiliation with an opposition group is not inherent in armed conflict, any more than is "ethnic cleansing." Cf. Knezevic v. Ashcroft, 367 F.3d 1206, 1211-12 (9th Cir. 2004) (explaining that the IJ "miss[ed] the critical distinction between persons displaced by the inevitable ravages of war . . . and those fleeing from hostile forces motivated by a desire to kill each and every member of that group."). Where, as the record indicates happened here, individuals are singled out at least in part for their political affiliation, rather than for their own actions; detained and thereby removed from active participation in civil strife; and tortured to obtain information about the opposition group, the surrounding civil strife does not undermine the conclusion that the torture is persecution on account of political opinion. See Ndom, 384 F.3d at 755; Ratnam, 154 F.3d at 996.
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