United States Ninth Circuit

In a petition for review of the Board of Immigrant Appeals (BIA) decision dismissing petitioner's appeal of an immigration judge's (IJ) denial of his application for deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), the en banc court of appeals determined: 1) the petition was not moot notwithstanding petitioner’s removal after filing his petition for review, because there was solid evidence that petitioner is currently present in the United States; 2) neither the petitioner nor the government bear the burden of proof as to internal relocation, rather such evidence, if relevant, must be considered in assessing whether it is more likely than not that the petitioner would be tortured if removed; and 3) Hasan v. Ashcroft, 380 F.3d 1114 (9th Cir. 2004), Lemus-Galvan v. Mukasey, 518 F.3d 1081 (9th Cir. 2008), Singh v. Gonzales, 439 F.3d 1100 (9th Cir. 2006), and Perez-Ramirez v. Holder, 648 F.3d 953 (9th Cir. 2011), are overruled to the extent they conflict with the plain text of the regulations governing internal relocation and deferral of removal under the CAT.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/18/2015
• Published 05/18/2015

Judges

• Paez

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel