Manuel Chavez-Rivera v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Manuel Antonio De Jesus Chavez-Rivera, a native and citizen of El Salvador, petitions pro se for review of the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals upholding the immigration judge’s denial of Chavez-Rivera’s applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture.

We reject Chavez-Rivera’s claim that he is eligible for asylum and withholding of removal based on past harm by gangs and resistance to gang recruitment, and his membership in the social group of young men who are sought by gangs for recruitment. See Barrios v. Holder, 581 F.3d 849, 862 (9th Cir.2009) (refusal to join a gang does not make petitioner part of a particular social group); Ramos-Lopez v. Holder, 563 F.3d 855, 862 (9th Cir.2009) (young Honduran men resisting recruitment do not constitute a particular social group); Santos-Lemus v. Mukasey, 542 F.3d 738, 745-46 (9th Cir.2008) (rejecting as a social group “young men in El Salvador resisting gang violence”). Accordingly, because petitioner failed to demonstrate that he was persecuted or fears persecution on account of a protected ground, his asylum and withholding of removal claims fail. See Barrios,…