Lingeswaran v. U.S. Attorney General, No. 18-13489 (11th Cir. 2020)
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The Eleventh Circuit denied a petition for review of the BIA's decision denying petitioner's claims for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). The court held that petitioner is not eligible for asylum where substantial evidence supports the BIA's conclusion that the Sri Lankan army's alleged treatment of petitioner was not on account of a protected ground -- his imputed political opinion and his Tamil ethnicity -- but rather because of his possible involvement with a terrorist organization.
The court also held that substantial evidence supports the BIA's conclusion that petitioner's fear of future persecution was not objectively reasonable because he did not show that the Sri Lankan government would target him or that the Sri Lankan government routinely persecutes Tamils. The court disagreed with the Ninth Circuit that the degree to which a group is disfavored alters an applicant's burden to establish either an individualized risk or a pattern or practice of persecution. Accordingly, the court held that the agency did not err by failing to analyze petitioner's well-founded fear of future persecution claim under the "disfavored group" test. Finally, the court upheld the BIA's finding that petitioner did not qualify for withholding of removal pursuant to the CAT.
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