Opinion ID: 2975312
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Commencement of Removal

Text: Removal proceedings began against Petitioner on December 30, 2003, when the former Immigration and Naturalization Service filed 2 a Notice to Appear with the Immigration Court and charged that Petitioner was subject to removal pursuant to INA §212(a)(6)(A)(I), 8 U.S.C. §1182(a). On September 21, 2004, Petitioner filed an Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal (“Application”). Petitioner represented in his Application that he was seeking withholding of removal solely on the basis of his membership in a particular social group. (Administrative Record (“A.R.”) 131.) He did not indicate that he was seeking withholding of removal on the basis of political opinion. (Id.) As the justification for his application for such relief, Petitioner stated that he had been kidnapped by and forced to join the FMLN Communist guerrillas when he was 16 years old. He asserted that if he is returned to his home country, he fears that he will be mistreated by Mara Salvatrucha (“M/S”) gang members because he refused to join them. As additional support for his Application, Petitioner attached a Declaration in which he further articulated his fear of the M/S gang members and his “terrible memories from the civil war.” (A.R. 136-37.)