Opinion ID: 2708912
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: Jamal Amin Ghanayem was born in Ramallah in 1959, during the time that the city was under the control of Jordan, and he lived there until 1967. Ghanayem did not acquire Jordanian citizenship by virtue of his birth. Israel gained control of Ramallah in 1967 as a result of the Six-Day War. Today, Ramallah is within the West Bank, and Ghanayem is considered a stateless Palestinian. Ghanayem and his family were admitted to the United States as lawful permanent residents in December 1967. Ghanayem has not left the United States since then. He married a United States citizen in 1987 and had five children, although he did not acquire American citizenship himself. Ghanayem and his wife divorced in 1997 but began living together again two years later. He is Catholic and supports himself through rental income from two multi-unit properties he owns. Ghanayem has a history of drug use and arrests. A 1982 conviction for possession and delivery of a controlled substance led the former Immigration and Naturalization Service to place him in deportation proceedings. An immigration judge granted him a waiver of deportation, though, and he retained his lawful permanent residency status. Following the grant of that waiver, Ghanayem was convicted in state court of unlawful use of a weapon in 1994, possession of a controlled substance in1997, and unlawful use or possession of a weapon by a felon in 2006. The Department of Homeland Security commenced deportation proceedings against Ghanayem in August 2006, charging him with removability under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(B)(i) as an alien convicted of an offense relating to a controlled substance. Ghanayem conceded removability but applied for withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). At his hearing, Ghanayem stated his belief that if he were removed to the West Bank, Israelis might persecute him because he is Palestinian. He also testified that he feared persecution on account of his Catholic faith. He recounted that his siblings had visited the West Bank and chose not to wear visible crosses for fear of provoking a confrontation with persons of Muslim faith, but he also acknowledged that his family members had not encountered any problems during their visits on account of their religion. Ghanayem also testified that he viewed himself as No. 12-2833 Page 3 American and worried he might be persecuted on that account, or in combination with other factors. The immigration judge issued an eleven-page written decision concluding that Ghanayem failed to meet his burden of proving a clear probability of persecution as required to obtain withholding of removal. The immigration judge also denied CAT relief, finding that Ghanayem failed to meet the heavy burden of showing he would more likely than not be tortured if removed to Israel. Ghanayem appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), which adopted and affirmed the decision of the immigration judge. Ghanayem now petitions our court for review.