Herminio Acevedo-Perez v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Herminio Antonio Acevedo-Perez, a native and citizen of Guatemala, petitions for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirming an immigration judge’s denial of his applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. He contends that the BIA erred in its determination that he failed to establish past persecution or an objectively reasonable fear of future persecution. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We grant the petition for review and remand to the BIA for further proceedings.

Although it is true that unfulfilled threats alone generally do not constitute past persecution, see Lim v. INS, 224 F.3d 929, 936 (9th Cir.2000), “threats may be compelling evidence of past persecution, particularly when they are specific and menacing and are accompanied by evidence of violent confrontations, near-confrontations and vandalism,” Mashiri v. Ashcroft, 383 F.3d 1112, 1119 (9th Cir. 2004) (citing Ruano v. Ashcroft, 301 F.3d 1155, 1160-61 (9th Cir.2002)); see also Kaiser v. Ashcroft, 390 F.3d 653, 658-59 (9th Cir.2004) (“What matters is whether the group making the threat has the will or…