Gary Barnes v. Attorney General United States of America

── Gary Barnes v. Attorney General United States of America ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Date: May 19, 2026 Category: General NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT ___________ No. 25-2098 ___________ GARY ALEXANDER BARNES, Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ____________________________________ On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (Agency No. A241-694-926) Immigration Judge: Dennis Ryan ____________________________________ Submitted Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a) December 26, 2025 Before: HARDIMAN, FREEMAN, and ROTH, Circuit Judges (Opinion filed: May 19, 2026) ___________ OPINION * ___________ * This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not constitute binding precedent. PER CURIAM Gary Barnes, proceeding pro se, has filed a petition for review of a final order of removal issued by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”). We will deny the petition. I. Barnes, a native and citizen of Jamaica, entered the United States without inspection in 2022. In May 2023, he filed a pro se I-589 application. That application raised claims for asylum and withholding of removal based on his political affiliations. Barnes alleged that his aunt “was brutally killed (burnt alive) in our house by members of an opposing political party” in July 2021. A.R. at 464. He alleged that his father was also killed by those same “said persons” in 2022, shortly after Barnes entered the United States. Id. Barnes later retained counsel, who filed an amended I-589 application in September 2024. That application added Barnes’ membership in a particular social group as a basis for his asylum and withholding claims; the application also raised new claims under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). All of these claims stemmed from a different set of key factual allegations. Barnes alleged that gang members had raped his mother in 2010, that she had testified against them, and that the gang has since pursued Barnes’ entire family. Barnes claimed that this family history was what had motivated the burning of his aunt’s house in 2021 and his father’s murder in 2022. In removal proceedings, Barnes testified regarding the history of gang violence he had raised in his amended application. Among other things, Barnes added that, in 2 December 2021, gang members killed two of his cousins. Barnes claimed that these killings were “all over the news.” Id. at 181. He explained that his father was killed in August 2022 by a relative of the gang member who had raped his mother. Barnes also testified that his half-sister called the police to identify his father’s killer. In his direct testimony, Barnes never addressed any link between the gangs and the political parties in Jamaica. Only in response to questions on cross-examination did he first attempt to articulate such a link. On cross-examination, counsel for the Government and the Immigration Judge (“IJ”) asked Barnes why his original I-589 application did not mention anything about his mother’s rape, her cooperation with the police, and the gang’s subsequent persecution of his family. Barnes responded that he had hired two lawyers who failed to file an application, that he was unsure of the process whe