Nicolas Rosales-Guinea v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Petitioner Nicolas Jorge Rosales-Guinea, a native and citizen of Guatemala, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) denial of asylum and withholding of removal. Reviewing the BIA’s factual determinations for substantial evidence, Hamazaspyan v. Holder, 590 F.3d 744, 747 (9th Cir.2009), we deny the petition.

Substantial evidence supports the BIA’s determination that, even assuming that Petitioner established the presumption of a well-founded fear of future persecution, the presumption was rebutted by evidence of changed country conditions. See 8 C.F.R. § 1208.13 (b)(l)(i)(A); see also 8 U.S.C. § 1252 (b)(4)(B) (substantial evidence exists “unless any reasonable adjudicator would be compelled to conclude to the contrary”). The record shows that the Guatemalan civil war ended in 1996. The State Department’s 2006 country report on Guatemala makes no mention of reprisals against former members of the Guatemalan military by former guerillas, and it expressly notes that there were “no reports of politically motivated disappearances.” The BIA’s analysis of changed country conditions was sufficiently individualized because it also found that…