Hugo Cabrera v. Loretta E. Lynch

MEMORANDUM

Hugo Lionel Cabrera (“Cabrera”) petitions this court for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) dismissal of his appeal from the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) order of removal. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 , and we grant the petition and remand the case to the BIA.

The BIA erred in concluding Cabrera was ineligible for asylum because he was not singled out from the crowd at the protest where he was shot by the Guatemalan police. Specifically, the BIA concluded Cabrera could not show past persecution, agreeing with the IJ that Cabrera “ha[d] not shown that he was singled out during the 1994 incident in which [Cabrera], among others, was shot by antiriot squad police at a demonstration of 8000 student activists.” As the BIA noted, we have held petitioners generally cannot establish eligibility for asylum based on “acts of random violence” against a group of people “unless they are singled out on account of a protected ground.” Ochave v. INS, 254 F.3d 859, 865 (9th Cir.2001). However, Cabrera need not show he was the only person targeted on account of a protected ground in order to establish his eligibility for asylum based on past persecution.…