Rafael Torres-Otamendi v. Eric H. Holder Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Petitioner Ada Sarai Calderon-Villalta, a native and citizen of El Salvador, petitions pro se for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals order dismissing her appeal from an immigration judge’s decision denying her application for asylum, withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We deny the petition for review.

Substantial evidence supports the Board’s denial of asylum and withholding of removal because, despite her credible testimony, Calderon-Villalta failed to show her alleged persecutors threatened her on account of a protected ground. CalderonVillalta is not a member of pi’otected group merely because she witnessed a crime. See id. at 745-46 (explaining that a group can lack requisite particularity of a protected social group if if it is too all-encompassing to constitute a cohesive, homogeneous and socially visible group); Molina-Morales v. INS, 237 F.3d 1048, 1052 (9th Cir.2001) (stating that personal retribution is not persecution on account of political opinion). Additionally, any persecution based on an actual or imputed anti-gang or anti-crime opinion is not on account of…