Rutilio Zaldana-Morales v. Loretta E. Lynch

MEMORANDUM

Rutilio Alfredo Zaldana-Morales, a native and citizen of El Salvador, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) order dismissing his appeal from an Immigration Judge’s (“U”) decision denying his request for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). We grant his petition for review and remand his case to the BIA for further proceedings.

We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . A BIA determination that an applicant is not eligible for asylum, withholding of removal, or CAT relief “must be upheld, if supported by reasonable, substantial, and probative evidence on the record considered as a whole.” INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 481 , 112 S.Ct. 812 , 117 L.Ed.2d 38 (1992) (internal quotation marks omitted).

Zaldana-Morales sought asylum and withholding ,of removal based upon past persecution and fear of future persecution due to the fact that he had come forward as a witness against violent gang activity in El Salvador, and identified a specific person as a leader of this gang activity. In rejecting this claim, the BIA did not have the benefit of our en banc decision in…