Cruz Lorenzo Calmo v. Loretta E. Lynch

MEMORANDUM

Cruz Lorenzo Calmo, 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 decision denying his application for withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We review for substantial evidence the agency’s factual findings, Silaya v. Mukasey, 524 F.3d 1066, 1070 (9th Cir. 2008), and we deny the petition for review.

Substantial evidence supports the BIA’s determination that, even if Lorenzo Calmo established past persecution on account of his Mam ethnicity and familial relationship to his father, there has been a fundamental change in circumstances in Guatemala such that the government rebutted the presumption that his life or freedom would be threatened upon his return on account of a protected ground. See 8 C.F.R. § 1208.16 (b)(1)(A); see Gonzalez-Hernandez v. Ashcroft, 336 F.3d 995, 1000 (9th Cir. 2003) (agency properly provided “an individualized analysis of how changed conditions will affect the specific petitioner’s situation”) (internal quotation marks omitted). Lorenzo Calmo’s…