Cesar Elvin Amaya Ramos v. ERIC H. HOLDER, Jr., Attorney General

NOT FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
CESAR ELVIN AMAYA RAMOS,
Petitioner,
v.
ERIC H. HOLDER, Jr., Attorney General,
Respondent.
No. 07-73121
Agency No. A92-487-835
MEMORANDUM*
On Petition for Review of an Order of the
Board of Immigration Appeals
Argued and Submitted October 9, 2013
Pasadena, California
Before: PAEZ and HURWITZ, Circuit Judges, and ERICKSON, Chief District
Judge.**
Cesar Elvin Amaya Ramos, a native of El Salvador, petitions for review of a
Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) order denying his appeal from the decision of
FILED
OCT 21 2013
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
** The Honorable Ralph R. Erickson, Chief District Judge for the U.S.
District Court for the District of North Dakota, sitting by designation.

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an Immigration Judge (IJ) denying his application for relief under the Convention
Against Torture (CAT). Because the IJ applied an improper standard in determining
Amaya’s application for CAT relief, we grant the petition and remand for further
proceedings.
To qualify for CAT relief, a petitioner must establish that “it is more likely than
not that he or she would be tortured if removed to the proposed country of removal.”
8 C.F.R. § 208.16(c)(2); Cole v. Holder, 659 F.3d 762, 770 (9th Cir. 2011) (internal
quotation marks and citation omitted). The inquiry focuses on the particular
petitioner, not on a hypothetical person being removed. In denying Amaya’s petition
for relief, the IJ stated that to establish a claim for relief under the CAT Amaya needed
to prove that of the 38,000 people deported to El Salvador, “19,001 persons would
have to have been tortured.” This reasoning clearly misstates the appropriate legal
standard. By requiring Amaya to prove that fifty percent of all deportees are tortured,
the IJ improperly heightened Amaya’s burden of proof under the CAT.
PETITION FOR REVIEW GRANTED; REMANDED.
2

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