Sheza Khan v. U.S. Attorney General


USCA11 Case: 20-14182 Date Filed: 07/21/2021 Page: 1 of 10 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 20-14182 Non-Argument Calendar ________________________ Agency No. A026-686-648 SHEHZA KHAN, Petitioner, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ________________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals ________________________ (July 21, 2021) Before JILL PRYOR, LAGOA, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Shehza Khan, a native and citizen of Pakistan, petitions this Court for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ final order affirming the immigration judge’s USCA11 Case: 20-14182 Date Filed: 07/21/2021 Page: 2 of 10 denial of his application for deferred removal based on the Convention Against Torture. He argues that the BIA and the immigration judge failed to give reasoned consideration to evidence in the record showing that it was more likely than not that he would be tortured if he were removed to Pakistan. We disagree and deny the petition. I. Khan entered the United States in 1984 as a nonimmigrant. In 2016, the Department of Homeland Security served him with a notice to appear and charged him with removability following multiple convictions, including several for drug- trafficking offenses. Khan initially appeared pro se, but the immigration judge found that he was not competent to represent himself. Khan’s new counsel admitted the factual allegations against Khan, and the immigration judge found that Khan was removable as charged. Khan then filed an application for withholding of removal under the CAT. See 8 C.F.R. §§ 1208.16(d)(2), 1208.17(a). He submitted several documents in support of his application, including articles explaining that Pakistani law enforcement engaged in widespread torture to obtain confessions from people in custody and articles that detailed Pakistan’s denial of mental illness and that described a lack of access to mental health care in the country. He also attached an excerpt from the 2 USCA11 Case: 20-14182 Date Filed: 07/21/2021 Page: 3 of 10 State Department’s “Pakistan 2017 Human Rights Report,” which discussed torture and prison conditions in the country. Khan also testified in support of his application. He stated that he had no friends or family in Pakistan, that he feared he would be homeless if removed to Pakistan because he would not have access to needed medications, and that he was scared of being tortured by Pakistani officials because he had monitored radical Muslims for U.S. law enforcement. He also stated that he expected to be imprisoned in Pakistan because he would be a criminal deportee and would be targeted because he would be perceived as mentally ill. After hearing Khan’s testimony, the immigration judge first noted that Khan’s counsel “conceded that [Khan] was only eligible for deferral of removal under” the CAT and explained that Khan was ineligible for withholding of removal because he had been convicted of a “particular serious crime.” He then concluded that the record did not establish that Khan was more likely than not to be tortured in the future if returned to Pakistan …

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