Jose Rodriguez-Jimenez v. Merrick Garland

BACKGROUND

I. Removal Proceedings

In February 2015, Rodriguez-Jimenez pled guilty to unlawful flight/eluding police and driving under the influence. A month later, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) commenced removal proceedings. In the midst of his removal proceedings, Rodriguez-Jimenez pled guilty to two other criminal offenses: solicitation to commit forgery and possession of drug paraphernalia. Because of his criminal history, Rodriguez-Jimenez’s sole basis for

RODRIGUEZ-JIMENEZ V. GARLAND

relief raised before the agency was deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture (CAT).

In his application, Rodriguez-Jimenez expressed concern about returning to Mexico, and specifically his hometown of Altar, Sonora, because of problems that his cousin’s family experienced in 2012. He wrote that “my cousin Mario Rodriguez . . . . informed me that [“hit men” for the cartel, or “sicarios”] had . . . . in January of 2012 . . . entered [Mario’s] home and pointed their guns at his wife . . . and their children demanding from them that they turn my cousin over to them.” Rodriguez-Jimenez wrote that Mario was not home at the time, and that his…