De Dios v. Holder

MEMORANDUM

Anselmo Pascual Puentes Solis, a native and citizen of Guatemala, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) order dismissing his appeal from an immigration judge’s (“IJ”) decision denying his application for asylum. Our jurisdiction is governed by 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We review for substantial evidence factual findings, INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478 , 481 & n. 1, 112 S.Ct. 812 , 117 L.Ed.2d 38 (1992), and we review de novo due process claims, Vasquez-Zavala v. Ashcroft, 324 F.3d 1105, 1107 (9th Cir.2003). We deny in part and dismiss in part the petition for review.

The record does not compel the conclusion that internal relocation for Puentes Solis is unreasonable. See 8 C.F.R. § 1208.13 (b)(l)(i)(B) (presumption of a well-founded fear of future persecution is rebutted if the applicant could reasonably be expected to relocate to another part of the country to avoid future persecution).

Puentes Solis failed to exhaust his contention that the IJ violated due process by not acting as a neutral decision maker. Accordingly, we lack jurisdiction to review this claim. See Barron v. Ashcroft, 358 F.3d 674, 678 (9th Cir.2004); Sanchez-Cruz v. INS,…