Douglas Adrian Zelaya-Moreno v. Wilkinson

Twenty-year-old Douglas Adrian Zelaya-Moreno (Zelaya) (plaintiff), a citizen and resident of El Salvador, was pressured to join the Mara Salvatrucha (MS) gang, which had a large foothold in El Salvador. On two occasions, Zelaya was physically attacked by MS members when he refused to join the gang and expressed his belief that gangs were harmful to his hometown and El Salvador in general. On the second occasion, it was the local police who took Zelaya to the gang members, and they beat him in the process. On a third occasion, MS members threatened to kill Zelaya unless he joined the gang. Thereafter, Zelaya remained inside his home for approximately two weeks until he gathered sufficient funds to flee El Salvador. Zelaya arrived in the United States in April 2014 and was promptly arrested by border patrol. The Department of Homeland Security charged Zelaya as removable for attempting to enter the country without proper entry documents. Zelaya responded by, among other things, applying for asylum. The asylum claim was political in nature, with Zelaya arguing that he was subjected to persecution because of his political opinion that gangs were bad for his hometown and El Salvador generally. An immigration judge concluded that Zelaya’s belief about gangs qualified as a political opinion but denied the asylum claim on the basis that Zelaya’s persecution was because of his refusal to join MS, not his opinion about gangs. The Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed denial of the asylum claim but did so based on a conclusion that Zelaya’s beliefs about gangs did not constitute a political opinion and thus could not form the basis for political asylum. Zelaya appealed.