Opinion ID: 3036628
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: They hung me upside down and they beat me.

Text: While hanging upside down they brought a bag of gasoline, put my head inside that bag and tied me.    About 30 to 40 seconds I fainted. When I opened my eyes I was in my room.    They [also] tied my toes together and one person will pull one side and the others, the other person will pull it. And the other person pulled my head. They would fill the plastic bag with sand and they will beat me with that.    [And t]hey burned me with cigarette butts. Nadarajah was released when his mother again bribed an official. He was told it was the last time he would be released and he ought to leave the country. Accompanied and funded by an uncle, Nadarajah departed immediately for Colombo, with plans to go to Canada. In October of 2001, Nadarajah left Sri Lanka, having obtained a passport and exit documents through a smuggler. He traveled through Thailand, South Africa, Brazil and then Mexico before reaching the United States on October 27, 2001. He was apprehended by U.S. immigration officials at the border, and has been detained since. On November 9, 2001, the Immigration and Naturalization Service granted Nadarajah parole from custody, conditioned, inter alia, on payment of a $20,000 bond. Unable to pay the bond, Nadarajah remained in custody. Nadarajah requested that the bond amount be decreased on at least three occasions, NADARAJAH v. GONZALES 3151 but these requests were denied. On August 9, 2004, counsel for Nadarajah attempted to present $20,000 to secure his parole under the 2001 terms. However, the United States Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) was “unwilling to accept the bond, stating that the previous order granting Mr. Nadarajah parole was ‘stale’ and ICE could not honor it.” In November of 2001, removal proceedings began against Nadarajah. He conceded removability and applied for asylum and other relief, claiming past persecution and fear of future persecution on account of his ethnicity and imputed political opinion. The government obtained two continuances; not until April 21, 2003, was a hearing held at which Nadarajah testified. The government opposed Nadarajah’s asylum application on the grounds that he was affiliated with the LTTE, an allegation supported by the affidavit of an ICE agent who had received information from a confidential informant. Despite the government’s allegations and “some discrepancies” in Nadarajah’s testimony, the immigration judge (“IJ”) found Nadarajah credible, noting that his testimony was consistent and supportive of his asylum claim. The IJ granted asylum and relief under the Convention Against Torture. On April 25, 2003, the government filed a motion to reopen the removal proceedings to introduce additional evidence, namely, to present the testimony of a Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) agent. The IJ denied the motion, and the government appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA” or “Board”). The BIA granted the motion to reopen and remanded to the IJ. In its remand order, the BIA instructed the IJ to hear evidence in the form of testimony by the DHS witness, special agent Schultz, even though the IJ had given the DHS two postponements in order to present its witness without the witness appearing. Proceedings were held on June 8 and August 18, 2004. Agent Schultz testified, as well as Nadarajah’s expert witness. 3152 NADARAJAH v. GONZALES Schultz testified that his knowledge of the matter came from research that “involved reviewing public information that was available on the [LTTE] from State Department reports, Amnesty International reports[, speaking] to people in the Canadian government that were considered experts on the ground, and [speaking to] an ass[e]t of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who is an expert regarding the group.” When asked about the reliability of his Canadian sources, Schultz replied that he “had no reason to question their reliability. So [he] assumed that everything they told [him] was true.” His faith in his sources was buttressed when he received “an anonymous letter that [he] believe[d] was postmarked in California[, and a] lot of the information in that anonymous letter was the same as the information that [he] had received from the Canadian officials.” According to the informant, the area of Jaffna where Nadarajah lived was LTTE controlled, and it would have been impossible for him to exit the area without the approval and assistance of the LTTE. Therefore, concluded Schultz, Nadarajah must have been at least affiliated with the LTTE. Schultz also investigated the 20 Tamils smuggled with Nadarajah. Schultz read the statements of all of the aliens, and concluded that, in all 21 cases, “almost the entire declaration was rehearsed [and coached], because they were so similar”: I read their declarations, and I read the I-213s, and they were all very similar, which led me to believe that they were coached. Also, considering the fact that they’re from the same general part of the world, they all entered within a few days of each other, all in the same general area, and came up with the same almost exact story as far as their background and their routes of travel, it appeared to me that they had been coached. In addition, since the first hearing, the informant had told Schultz of a May 2003, telephone call that Nadarajah had NADARAJAH v. GONZALES 3153 made, along with a female detainee and LTTE member named Satchithananthan held at the same facility, to order that someone in Canada be killed. On cross-examination, when asked how Nadarajah and Satchithananthan could have made the call “together” at the gender-segregated detention facility, Schultz responded: I could only say that’s what I wrote. I mean I, I don’t know. And I didn’t say that I knew. I didn’t say it was one telephone call. I said both of these individuals placed a telephone call to Toronto.    So it could have been on different days, it could have been at different times. Schultz had no answer as to why he had not attempted to monitor the telephones at the facility, or even subpoena the phone records. Nadarajah’s expert, Robert Oberst, is a professor of political science and specialist in South Asian politics at Nebraska Wesleyan University. He has served as an advisor to the United States government in various capacities, has published at least 75 articles on Sri Lanka, as well as four books (including the most widely used textbook on South Asia) and has spent a total of at least three to four years living in Sri Lanka, most recently in 2003, when he spent nine months in the country. Oberst testified that, in his research, he is very skeptical of informants’ claimed identities, and often disbelieves his purported informants. In his opinion, it was unlikely that the LTTE would smuggle individuals out of Colombo, an area controlled by the Sri Lankan army. Further, Oberst testified that the area of Jaffna where Nadarajah lived was under Sri Lankan army control, and there was a military base near his aunt’s house. As a result, in Oberst’s opinion, it was highly unlikely that the LTTE would be in any way involved in smuggling a Tamil person out of this area. 3154 NADARAJAH v. GONZALES After assessing the new evidence, the IJ concluded that “this Court finds nothing of significance which would seriously alter the Court’s original finding.” The IJ therefore reinstated his prior order granting Nadarajah asylum. After the IJ’s second decision granting asylum, Nadarajah’s counsel submitted letters dated September 3 and 8, 2004, again requesting parole. These requests were denied by San Diego ICE Field Office Director Ronald Smith on September 20, 2004, pursuant to an August 13, 2004, determination by ICE that Nadarajah “no longer m[et] the criteria for a bond.” After the IJ’s second opinion and after his request for parole was denied, Nadarajah filed his habeas petition with the District Court for the Southern District of California. More than one year after he filed the petition, it was denied by the district court. This timely appeal followed. Subsequently, on January 5, 2006, the BIA affirmed the IJ’s second opinion granting Nadarajah relief. The BIA dismissed the appeal and ordered the record remanded to the IJ “for the purpose of allowing [DHS] the opportunity to complete or update identity, law enforcement, or security investigations or examinations, and further proceedings, if necessary, and for the entry of an order as provided by 8 C.F.R. § 1003.47(h).” (citing Background and Security Investigations in Proceedings Before the Immigration Judges and the Board of Immigration Appeals, 70 Fed. Reg. 4743, 475254 (Jan 31, 2005)). The next day, in an unusual move, the BIA Chairperson referred the case to the Attorney General for review, “seek[ing] guidance from the Attorney General on whether he wishes to exercise his discretion and de novo review authority in this case of national interest where the Board applied the standard of review required by 8 C.F.R. § 1003.1(d)(3).” The BIA did not provide for Nadarajah’s release from detention, where he remains without any established timeline for a decision on when he may be released from detention. NADARAJAH v. GONZALES 3155 This appeal is confined to the district court’s denial of the petition for a writ of habeas corpus and the agency’s denial of parole. We review the district court’s decision to grant or deny a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241 de novo. Singh v. Ashcroft, 351 F.3d 435, 438 (9th Cir. 2003). We review the decision to deny parole under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(d)(5)(A) for abuse of discretion, and the agency’s parole decision will be upheld if supported by a “facially legitimate and bona fide reason.” Jean v. Nelson, 472 U.S. 846, 853 (1985) (quoting Kleindienst v. Mandel, 408 U.S. 753, 770 (1972)).