Marcos Morales-Herrera v. Loretta E. Lynch

MEMORANDUM

Petitioner Marcos Morales-Herrera, a native and citizen of Guatemala, petitions for review of an adverse decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”). The BIA held that Petitioner was not entitled to withholding of removal or protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). We deny the petition.

1.The BIA did not err by failing to determine conclusively whether physically disabled people or indigenous people constitute a “particular social group.” Petitioner is disabled and is ethnically indigenous. The BIA assumed, without deciding, that Petitioner therefore belongs to a “particular social group.” But the BIA concluded that Petitioner had failed to demonstrate that the rape he suffered in the past, or the retaliation he fears in the future, was or will be “on account of’ his disability or ethnicity. We review for substantial evidence. Ling Huang v. Holder, 744 F.3d 1149, 1152 (9th Cir. 2014). The BIA permissibly found that Petitioner was a victim of random criminal violence in the past and that his fear is of general violence in his home country in the future.

2. The BIA did not err in characterizing the degree of economic hardship that constitutes…