Opinion ID: 625002
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Escamilla’s background

Text: Escamilla presents detailed information on the tragic gang violence in El Salvador, the government’s effort to combat the gang violence, the status of HIV-positive men in El Salvador, and his own personal background.1 Although Escamilla is not and has never been a gang member, his life in El Salvador intertwines with the two prominent Salvadoran gangs, Mara Salvatrucha (“MS-13”) and the 18th Street gang (“Mara 18” or “M-18”). The Salvadoran government has made reducing the power and influence of gangs a high priority, with very limited success. Gang recruitment focuses on young men, often as young as nine or ten. While most gang membership is not coerced, gangs are recruiting with increasingly violent methods, including harassment, physical abuse, and murder, either of the targeted youth or his or her family. See, e.g., Barrientos, 658 F.3d at 1225–26 (woman kidnapped, gang-raped, and beaten, and her family threatened with murder when she refused to join MS-13). Gangs significantly affect most of the Salvadoran population. Escamilla faced gang violence beginning at age nine, when MS-13 members beat 1 Escamilla’s opening brief refers to additional factual information contained in an Affidavit from Professor Thomas M. Davies, Jr. This court cannot consider the additional information in this affidavit. Pursuant to Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) 242 (b)(4)(A), 8 U.S.C. § 1252(b)(4)(A) (2011), “the court of appeals shall decide the petition only on the administrative record on which the order of removal is based.” 3 him because he refused to join. Beginning at age nine or ten, he lived on the streets for three years, where he was often recruited and beaten by both MS-13 and M-18. While living on the street, he was shot twice by people wearing police uniforms, although Escamilla was not sure if they were actually police or merely gang members in police uniforms. Escamilla suggests that many of his problems with gangs stem from his uncle’s extensive involvement in M-18. His uncle is currently serving a jail sentence for “murder, extortion, and forced recruitment of young men into the ranks of the Mara 18 gang.” Certified Administrative Record (CAR) at 568. While living on the street, Escamilla faced pressure from both gangs. As he put it, “[t]o the outside world, and the rival Mara Salvatrucha 13 gang, it appeared I was a Mara 18 gang member. Yet to the Mara 18 gang, I was the kid that constantly refused to join their ranks. I was becoming dangerously stuck in the middle.” Id. at 569. As a young adult, Escamilla was beaten, robbed, and threatened with death by MS13 during an attack when returning from work, and he often faced “[h]ard looks and threats” from MS-13. Id. at 572. At the time, he was also dating a woman who was part of the Mara 18 gang, resulting in additional attacks by MS-13. MS-13 later killed his girlfriend and mutilated her body. Later, Escamilla worked in a coffee field, and while working there he inadvertently disrupted an MS-13 plan to rape a woman. MS-13 members sought to kill Escamilla after the foiled rape, but because Escamilla was not working on the day they came for him, they ultimately killed another man in the coffee fields. M-18 also attacked Escamilla 4 several times: he was carjacked by M-18 members, including one wearing a police badge, chased by an M-18 member carrying a machete, and finally shot at by M-18 members. After the last shooting attempt, Escamilla left El Salvador. He traveled up through Central America, eventually entering the United States in 2006. He later moved to Jackson, Wyoming, where he began living with Rhea Brough, a United States citizen, in March 2007. He was diagnosed with HIV in July 2007. His condition does not yet require medication, but he does receive medical checkups with blood tests to monitor his condition every three or four months. Escamilla married Brough on April 25, 2009. In addition to the evidence related to Salvadoran gang activity, Escamilla presented testimony from an expert witness, Mr. Omar Banos, who described conditions in El Salvador that might impact an HIV-positive man. Banos described societal discrimination, stigma, and occasional violence inflicted on HIV-positive men, and noted that an HIV-positive man would likely be considered homosexual, which would expose him to additional discrimination. He also noted that El Salvador has laws prohibiting discrimination against HIV-positive individuals, although the laws do not appear to be widely enforced. Banos discussed access to HIV medications in El Salvador, noting that although the government had an all-access policy for anyone needing HIV drugs, only roughly half of people needing the drugs actually received them.