Jose Mendez v. Loretta E. Lynch

MEMORANDUM

Jose A. Mendez petitions for review from the Board of Immigration Appeals’ decision to deny his claims for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We grant in part and deny in part the petition for review, and remand for further proceedings.

1. The Board concluded that Mendez was ineligible for asylum because he he did not suffer past persecution, and did not have a well-founded fear of future persecution. 8 C.F.R. § 208.13 (b). The Board found “no reason in the record to disturb [the Immigration Judge’s] finding” that Mendez “was credible.”

Mendez testified his family supported the government of El Salvador during the country’s civil war. When Mendez was thirteen, he received “three notes in school accusing him of giving information to the army,” and which “threatened him.” His pastor, after seeing , the notes, “suggested that Mendez move or leave the country.” To avoid the guerillas, Mendez started sleeping at a different house each night and taking different routes to school. One night, the guerillas knocked on the door of the house that Mendez was staying in. He…