The Board of Immigration Appeals has sustained DHS's appeal from a grant of deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture to a Guatemalan man who feared retaliation from the Latin Kings and MS-13 after cooperating with federal law enforcement and testifying against gang members while incarcerated.
The Board held that the immigration judge clearly erred by relying almost entirely on generalized country-conditions evidence and expert testimony about corruption while overlooking the applicant's individualized circumstances, including that he had never been tortured, that the gangs' threats since his release had been vague and indirect, and that years had passed without any physical approach from gang members. The Board also found that the expert's acknowledgment that both the Guatemalan and Mexican governments have taken some action against organized crime undercut a finding of official acquiescence, and vacated the grant of CAT relief to both countries.
The full text of Matter of H-L-S-M- can be found here: https://www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1453181/dl?inline