NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT ________________ Nos. 19-2075 & 20-1288 ________________ ABDALLAH MOHAMED KHAMIS, a/k/a SHOCK LNU, a/k/a SHAKA LNU, Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ______________ On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals BIA No. A087-098-847 (U.S. Immigration Judge: Alice Song Hartye) ______________ Submitted Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a) February 9, 2021 Before: CHAGARES, SCIRICA, and COWEN, Circuit Judges. (Opinion Filed: June 14, 2021) ________________ OPINION* ________________ SCIRICA, Circuit Judge Abdallah Mohamed Khamis seeks review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’s dismissal of his appeal seeking deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture, as well as its denial of his motion to reopen. We will deny the petitions. I Abdallah Mohamed Khamis, a citizen of Tanzania, entered the United States in 1999 as a non-immigrant visitor and later became a lawful permanent resident. He was then indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on two counts for a yearlong conspiracy to import and distribute one kilogram or more of heroin. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(C), and 846, admitting that he distributed heroin with his coconspirators. And he was sentenced in 2016 to eighteen months’ imprisonment. The Department of Homeland Security commenced removal proceedings against Khamis based on this conviction. In the removal proceedings, Khamis, through prior counsel, conceded that he was not eligible for asylum or withholding of removal, for which he had initially applied, and * This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not constitute binding precedent. 2 sought only deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture1 (CAT). Despite having narrowed the case solely to CAT relief, prior counsel referenced persecution, as opposed to torture, twice at the merits hearing, and he did not present certain torture- related evidence, including Khamis’s testimony about why he was not tortured during prior travel to Tanzania. Further, prior counsel’s memorandum of law in support of Khamis’s application contained several errors, including references to the Congo and ethnic persecution, neither of which were at issue in this case. Nonetheless, prior counsel’s written and oral advocacy asserted that Khamis is more likely than not to be tortured in Tanzania because he is human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive. Prior counsel explained that Khamis will have to seek treatment at government-run HIV clinics in Tanzania and argued that, due to the Tanzanian government’s association of HIV with homosexuality, Khamis, despite being heterosexual, will be accused of being homosexual. As a result of this, prior counsel argued, Khamis will be tortured through imprisonment, compulsory anal examinations, or deprivation of life-saving medication. He submitted evidence indicating that in Tanzania, where homosexual acts are criminal offenses, the government launched a campaign against homosexuality by shuttering non-governmental HIV clinics and arresting and conducting compulsory anal examinations of individuals accused of being homosexual. 1 …
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