Cesar Hernandez-Perez v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Cesar Octavio Hernandez Perez, a native and citizen of Guatemala, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ decision affirming an Immigration Judge’s denial of his applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. Although we sustain most of the BIA’s opinion, it appears that the BIA failed to deal with at least one argument properly presented to it by Hernandez Perez. We thus grant in part and deny in part the petition for review, and remand for further proceedings.

We do not fault the BIA’s decision as far as it went, but Hernandez Perez made arguments that the BIA did not deal with in its decision, which concluded that Hernandez Perez failed to establish the requisite nexus between the harm he suffered and his political opinion. In particular, the BIA failed to discuss Hernandez Perez’s argument that he was persecuted for being a whistleblower. See Sagaydak v. Gonzales, 405 F.3d 1035, 1040 (9th Cir.2005)(“IJs and the BIA are not free to ignore arguments raised by a petitioner.”). Although whistleblowing is not always an exercise of political opinion, whistleblowing against corrupt government…