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

Heading: Merits Hearing Before the IJ

Text: On March 25, 2005, the IJ conducted the final hearing on the merits. At this hearing, Petitioner testified that during the Salvadoran civil war, he was kidnapped from his home in the town of Masahuat and forced to serve in a Communist guerrilla army. Petitioner alleged that he was taught how to use weapons and how to fight in battles. He said that he was regularly kicked and beaten with rifle butts. Petitioner stated that he and the other 3 conscripts were told that they should fight because it was a “good thing to do,” and that they should be able “to die while [they] were fighting.” (A.R. 72.) According to Petitioner, if he did not listen to the guerrillas, they would beat him. Petitioner further believed that the guerrillas would kill him if he fled. Nevertheless, after approximately three months with the guerrilla army, Petitioner fled and lived with a family in a town within El Salvador called Nahualpa for one year. He then moved to a different town in El Salvador, Pie de la Cuesta, where he safely remained in the country from 1988 until 1996, when he entered the United States illegally. According to Petitioner’s testimony before the IJ, he fled El Salvador because he believed that after the end of the civil war, the guerrillas had become gang members and criminals who would continue to threaten his life. After consideration of Petitioner’s testimony, the IJ found that although Petitioner was credible, he had not demonstrated eligibility for withholding. Petitioner was ineligible for withholding because he failed to demonstrate that his past detention by the guerrilla army was on account of one of the five protected grounds which would entitle him to such relief. Specifically, the IJ concluded that Petitioner’s past detention by the guerrillas was not on account of political opinion or Petitioner’s membership in a particular social group. The IJ further determined that Petitioner failed to demonstrate any future probability of persecution that exists for him countrywide in El Salvador. He opined: “The Court is taking 4 nothing away from [Petitioner’s] experience, yet, the clear evidence . . . shows that the civil war is over, and that the guerrillas are not targeting either former guerrillas who escaped or former combatants against the guerrillas.” (A.R. 32.) Additionally, to the extent Petitioner feared gang members in El Salvador, the Immigration Judge noted that fear of rampant crime in an alien’s home country is not one of the five statutory grounds which would entitle Petitioner to withholding of removal. Finally, the judge concluded that Petitioner was eligible for voluntary departure.