Matter of C-A-

C-A- (plaintiff) was a citizen of Colombia living in Cali, where the Cali drug cartel had its headquarters. C-A- was acquainted with A-D-, the head of security for the cartel, and C-A- was friends with V-M-M-, Cali’s general counsel responsible for prosecuting drug crimes. A-D- often spoke to C-A- regarding the cartel’s affairs, including its members, assets, and exports of drugs out of Colombia. C-A- voluntarily passed this information on to V-M-M- out of a sense of civic duty. One day, when C-A- was out with his son, a vehicle pulled up with three armed men who got out and beat C-A- and struck his son in the face with a gun. The men threatened C-A-’s family and V-M-M- as well. C-A-’s son required reconstructive surgery. C-A- and his family went into hiding and eventually left Colombia, as advised by V-M-M-, and went to the United States. C-A- and his wife and children sought asylum. An immigration judge (IJ) found C-A- credible but determined that any past or feared future persecution was because of the Cali drug cartel’s retaliation for C-A-’s voluntary choice to inform on it, not because of a protected ground. The cartel targeted anyone who stood in its way. On appeal before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), C-A- argued that his past and feared persecution was premised on imputed political opinion and membership in a particular social group. C-A- proffered that noncriminal informants, specifically those who had provided information to the Colombian government regarding the Cali drug cartel, constituted a particular social group. The BIA did not accept the imputed-political-opinion theory and affirmed the IJ without addressing the issue of noncriminal informants as a particular social group. On review, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit remanded the case to the BIA to determine whether a particular social group could be composed of noncriminal informants. On remand, the BIA determined that a group of noncriminal informants, in general, was too broad to qualify. However, the BIA also considered C-A-’s proffered subgroup and the distinction he drew between informants such as police officers, who informed on the Cali drug cartel for compensation, versus persons, such as himself, who informed on the Cali drug cartel as a matter of civic responsibility.