Court Opinion

ID: 9495139
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:55:21.724837+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:50.131851
License: Public Domain

GRABER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent.
The BIA concluded that the lead Petitioner had failed to meet his burden to establish that it would not be reasonable for him to relocate within Peru. In my view, the record does not compel a contrary finding.
The majority relies on a single telephone message to support its conclusion that the record compels a finding that Petitioner had a well-founded fear of future persecution, despite the absence of past persecution. Several things are unclear about the evidence pertaining to that message, for example: (a) whether the relevant testimony is part of the sequence that the BIA found not credible; (b) whether this message actually came from the Shining Path or was left by someone else; (c) what “either way” referred to; (d) whether the message was a death threat or a threat to have Cardenas arrested on a false charge; and (e) when the message was left on the machine. The pertinent questions and answers at the hearing were:
Q. Sir, excuse me, but you just testified that out of the clear blue sky the Peruvian police sought to arrest you for being involved in the — in the making or giving over of phony documents including visas. Why would they — why would they suspect a person like you who worked for a shipping company or a ship building company, who is not a government official? Why would they suspect you of being involved in any of this?
A. That person said that I had given those documents in order for him to get the visa. When I returned from Cañete ... to my house [in Lima] I found a message in my machine which said, these — -I was getting— they were getting close to me and either way they were going to get me.
*1069Q. Who was getting close to you?
A. The Shining Path.
(Emphasis added.) Ambiguity matters, because our standard of rewew is very deferential.
Most likely this sequence was part of the testimony that the BIA discredited, which pertained to a supposedly false charge against Petitioner that the Shining Path had filed with the police; it comes in the middle of that discussion.1 At all events, the majority resolves every ambiguity in favor of Petitioner, whereas our standard of review requires us to resolve every ambiguity in favor of the decision-maker below.
Even assuming that there was a threatening message on the answering machine and that it came from the Shining Path: (a) no threat against Cardenas ever had been accompanied by actual harm; and (b) the message did not reach him in Cañete and there is no evidence that Cardenas’ enemies knew he had been there or would find him there.
The latter observation brings me to my second point, the country conditions report. The report contains this section discussing the topic of internal relocation:
Another consideration affecting the adjudication of Peruvian asylum claims involves internal relocation. This is available to many applicants. Although the police and military are spread too thinly to protect every one threatened by the terrorists, Peru is a large, rugged country, and the terrorists operate with relatively unsophisticated communications. There is no evidence that a nationwide terrorist information network for tracking perceived targets exists. vian non-governmental human rights community to aid and even temporarily relocate within or outside the country those who feel they may be in danger from either side.
For those who feel threatened from whatever source, a well-developed informal mechanism exists within the Peru-
(Emphasis added.)
That passage supports the BIA’s assertion that “the State Department’s country profile (Exh. 6) indicates a weakening of the reach of the Shining Path.” The majority’s treatment of the report fails to take account of the part that addresses specifically the realistic prospects for successful internal relocation. And the prospects for Petitioner’s relocation within Peru were more than theoretical. He had, in fact, successfully relocated to Cañete where, he testified, he was working and he was “safe.”
The record does not, in my view, compel us to overturn the BIA’s conclusion that Petitioner failed to establish a well-founded fear of future persecution. Accordingly, I dissent.

. This probably accounts for the BIA’s not discussing the telephone message separately.