Salvador Andrade v. Loretta E. Lynch

Petitioner Salvador Andrade, a native and citizen of El Salvador, seeks review of a decision issued by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) affirming the Immigration Judge’s denial of his application for deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture.

In 1988, Andrade, then a teenager, illegally entered the United States. Twelve years later he was convicted of child .molestation. In 2008, twenty years after he came to the United States, Immigration and Customs Enforcement initiated removal proceedings. Andrade conceded that his child molestation conviction makes him ineligible for withholding of removal, but sought deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture. His mother and sisters, who still live in El Salvador, have warned of the dangers from gangs there.

The BIA held that Andrade had not established a likelihood that he would be tortured upon his return to El Salvador, or that its government would perpetrate or turn a blind eye to the torture. Andrade petitions for review, arguing that the BIA failed to give reasoned consideration of country conditions, and that the record compelled the conclusion that torture was likely, largely because his…