Singh v. Garland
| Decision Date | 25 August 2021 |
| Docket Number | No. 19-704-ag,August Term 2020,19-704-ag |
| Citation | 11 F.4th 106 |
| Parties | Jagdeep SINGH, Petitioner, v. Merrick GARLAND, United States Attorney General, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Jaspreet Singh, Jackson Heights, New York, for Petitioner.
Genevieve M. Kelly, Office of Immigration Litigation (Joseph H. Hunt, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, Cindy S. Ferrier, Assistant Director, Office of Immigration Litigation, on the brief), United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for Respondent.
Before: Livingston, Chief Judge, and Jacobs and Menashi, Circuit Judges.
Jagdeep Singh petitions for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals affirming an immigration judge's denial of his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture ("CAT"). The agency found that Singh suffered persecution when members of a rival political party assaulted him after he refused to leave his own party. But the agency denied his application for relief because Singh could safely relocate within India. The issue before us is whether the agency erred in finding that Singh could safely relocate within India to avoid future persecution or torture and that it would be reasonable to expect him to do so. We conclude that the agency did not err. Accordingly, we deny the petition for review.
Singh is a citizen of India who arrived in Hildago, Texas, on or about November 5, 2014, without a valid visa or entry document. In December 2014, Singh expressed a fear of returning to India and was placed in removal proceedings. The Notice to Appear charged Singh with being removable under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(7)(A)(i)(I) as an alien who arrived in the United Sates without valid entry documents. Singh was released from the custody of the Department of Homeland Security ("DHS") on bond.
Singh appeared before an immigration judge ("IJ") in Los Fresnos, Texas, on December 14, 2014. He admitted the allegations in the Notice to Appear, conceding his removability, and filed the application for asylum. The IJ granted a change of venue to New York City based on Singh's place of residence.
On November 21, 2017, the IJ in New York held a hearing on Singh's application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the CAT. At the hearing, Singh testified that he left India because he feared being harmed by members of a rival political party. He said that he joined the Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar ("Akali Dal Mann") political party in India in 2013 and that he worked for the party in the Hoshiarpur district in the state of Punjab by serving food and setting up tents at events. He explained that the party supports the establishment of an independent state of Khalistan and the release of Sikh prisoners from Indian jails. He further stated that he had no leadership role in the party, that he never engaged in political activity outside of Hoshiarpur, and that members of other parties realized he was a member of Akali Dal Mann when they saw him putting up flyers for an event. He also testified that he did not know any fellow party members who were persecuted within Punjab other than himself.
Singh testified that in July 2014 while he was attending one of his party's rallies, he received a call on his cell phone from an individual claiming to be a member of the rival Shiromani Akali Dal Badal ("Akali Dal Badal") political party. The caller purportedly told Singh that he should work for the Akali Dal Badal "and sell drugs" if he wanted to avoid being killed. Cert. Admin. R. at 100. Singh said that he reported the conversation to the police near the rally but that the police officers responded that they could not respond to the threat because they were "working for the government" and could not "do anything about it." Id.
Singh also testified that in August 2014 he was approached in person by five individuals claiming to be members of the Akali Dal Badal who similarly told him that "we want you to come and sell drugs for us and work for our party." Id. at 102. When Singh refused to do that, the five individuals beat him until he lost consciousness. Singh claimed that while he was unconscious, a passerby recognized him and took him home. After Singh woke up at home, his father took him to the hospital where he received intravenous fluid and "some ointment to put ... on my body." Id. at 103. He was in the hospital for six or seven hours. Singh said that he never reported the beating to the police. He said that his father advised him not to contact the police because the police officers had not responded to the threatening phone call he had previously reported. Singh said he was "fearful for my life." Id. at 104.
Singh said that he did not move to another part of India to avoid the rival party members because, when he rented a home or applied for a job, he would need to provide identification. If he showed his identification to anyone, he said, "[i]t's a very strong possibility that ... I would [be] tracked down and I would have been killed." Id. at 104. Counsel for the government asked Singh how someone would know from his identification card—which contained his name, address, and birthdate—that he supported the Akali Dal Mann. Singh responded that Id. at 111. He also suggested that members of an opposing party across India would recognize him because of his work hanging up posters and flyers in Hoshiarpur.
After considering Singh's testimony and the documentary evidence in the record describing political and social conditions in India, the IJ issued a decision denying Singh asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the CAT. The IJ found that the "mistreatment" of Singh by "Badal party members" rose "to the level of persecution and that the assailants were motivated by [Singh's] political opinion." Id. at 61. Because the IJ found that Singh had been persecuted in the past, the IJ applied a rebuttable presumption that Singh had a well-founded fear of future persecution. See 8 C.F.R. § 1208.13(b)(1). The IJ concluded that the government had rebutted that presumption, however, by showing that Singh could safely relocate within India to avoid further mistreatment. See id. § 1208.13(b)(1)(i)(B).
Regarding Singh's ability to relocate, the IJ observed that according to a State Department report, Indian law provides for freedom of movement and that the government generally respects that right. The IJ also examined other reports showing that police forces in each Indian state do not routinely communicate about the relocation of citizens. The IJ relied on a report of the Canadian Refugee Board stating that "several sources indicate that Sikhs do not face difficulties relocating to other areas of India." Cert. Admin. R. at 63. The IJ also noted that other reports indicated that "India is a country of some 1.2 billion people and that there are sizable Sikh populations through[out] the country." Id.
In response to Singh's claim that he would be discovered in a different region of India on account of his identification card, the IJ observed that a report by the United Kingdom's Home Office explained that India lacks a national police force and a nationwide crime database. The Home Office found no "evidence that there is a central registration system in place which would enable the police to check the whereabouts of inhabitants in their own state, let alone in any other states or unions within the country." Id. The IJ also described the Canadian Refugee Board's finding that "there is little interstate police communication [in India] except for cases of major crimes like smuggling, terrorism, and some high profile organized crime." Id. Based on this evidence, the IJ concluded that Singh "would be difficult to locate outside of Punjab even if Punjabi police were seeking him." Id. Moreover, the IJ noted that Singh did not even claim to have been targeted by Punjabi police but only by supporters of a rival political party who threatened him over the phone and assaulted him once. The IJ found that even though local police did not respond to the phone threats Singh reported, there was nothing in the record to show that the police were other than merely indifferent, let alone that the police would seek out Singh in another state or assist others in doing so.
Noting that Singh did not allege to be a high-profile member of the Akali Dal Mann, the IJ also relied on a report of the Library of Congress indicating that "only hardcore militants are of interest to Central Indian authorities" and that one does not qualify as a high-profile militant merely by holding pro-Khalistan views. Id. at 64. The IJ also observed that "neither the 2016 U.S. Department of State Human Rights Report for India nor the most recent International Religious Freedom Report mentions the persecution of Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar members in Punjab or elsewhere in India." Id.
Singh appealed the IJ's decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA"), arguing that he was a prominent figure in the Akali Dal Mann, that the IJ erred by finding that Singh was not a member of the party, and that it was not reasonable for him to relocate within India given his political activity and education level and India's various social problems, such as unemployment, poverty, corruption, and illness.
In a February 22, 2019, decision, the BIA dismissed the appeal. The BIA accepted the IJ's finding that Singh suffered past persecution, but it also agreed with the IJ that the government had shown that Singh could avoid future persecution by safely relocating within India and that it would be reasonable for him to do so. The BIA observed that the IJ properly shifted the burden to the government to demonstrate Singh's ability to relocate safely and that the government met that burden by a...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Ojo v. Garland
...U.S.C. § 1252(b)(4)(B). The scope of review under the substantial evidence standard is therefore "exceedingly narrow." Singh v. Garland , 11 F.4th 106, 113 (2d Cir. 2021) (quoting Mu Xiang Lin v. DOJ , 432 F.3d 156, 159 (2d Cir. 2005) ).According to the court, the substantial evidence stand......
-
Bhaktibhai-Patel v. Garland
...assertion that the "BJP control[s] the [entire] area and [the] Congress party does not exist." Id. at 143-44; see also Singh v. Garland , 11 F.4th 106, 117 (2d Cir. 2021) (upholding a similar agency determination about internal relocation).Second, the immigration officer observed that Bhakt......
-
Quituizaca v. Garland
...issue in those cases. Nor was it in dispute when we cited to it in the background section of a recent published decision. Singh v. Garland , 11 F.4th 106, 114 (2021).Outside of our circuit, the Third Circuit has adopted Matter of C-T-L ’ s reasoning, noting that the Real ID Act reflected "C......
-
In re M-F-O-
...both applications for asylum and withholding of removal. See Matter of C-T-L-, 25 I&N Dec. 341, 350 (BIA 2010); see also Singh v. Garland, 11 F.4th 106, 114 (2d Cir. 2021); Vazquez-Guerra v. Garland, 7 F.4th 265, 271 (5th Cir. 2021); Sanchez-Castro v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 998 F.3d 1281, 1286 (1......