B.G.S. v. Bondi

Summary

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted B.G.S.’s petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ denial of deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture. The court held that the agency failed to properly analyze whether gang members would torture B.G.S. in a Guatemalan prison and whether Guatemalan officials would acquiesce to that torture by private actors. The court vacated the BIA’s decision and remanded for further proceedings.

Holdings

1. The Agency did not properly assess B.G.S.'s claim that gang members would torture him in prison upon his return to Guatemala. The Agency focused on general prison conditions and failed to separately analyze the alleged private acts of torture by gang members.
2. The Agency was required to determine whether Guatemalan officials would know that B.G.S. was a target for prison violence, remain willfully blind to that risk, have a legal duty to intervene, and likely fail to intervene in violation of that duty.
3. Remand was required because the Agency failed to consider material evidence and did not apply the proper government-acquiescence framework to the prison-torture theory.
4. On remand, the Agency should clarify whether its stated persuasiveness determinations were actually adverse credibility determinations and should identify the nature and basis of its findings concerning B.G.S. and his supporting witnesses.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Agency properly assessed whether B.G.S. was more likely than not to be tortured by MS-13 or other gang members if imprisoned in Guatemala.
2. Whether the Agency properly assessed whether Guatemalan officials would know of, remain willfully blind to, or otherwise acquiesce in private actors' torture of B.G.S. in prison.
3. Whether the Agency adequately considered all relevant evidence concerning the likelihood of imprisonment, gang targeting, prison violence, government corruption, and government efforts to prevent gang violence.
4. Whether the Immigration Judge properly distinguished credibility determinations from persuasiveness determinations.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded