Jimmy Perez-Perez v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Petitioner Jimmy Johvar Perez-Perez is a native and citizen of El Salvador. He entered, the United States at or near Laredo, Texas, on March 16, 2006. Perez-Perez conceded removability as an alien present in the United States who had neither been admitted nor paroled, see 8 U.S.C. § 1182 (a)(6)(A)(i), but filed applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and for relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). The IJ denied Perez-Perez’s applications, and the BIA affirmed. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 (a)(1) and deny Perez-Perez’s petition for review.

Perez-Perez claims he was eligible for asylum because his religion, Evangelical Christianity, was a “central reason” he was or would be persecuted by gangs in El Salvador. See Zetino v. Holder, 622 F.3d 1007, 1015 (9th Cir.2010) (citing 8 U.S.C. § 1158 (b)(1)(B)(i)). He testified that he encountered members of Mara Savatrucha (“MS”), a Salvadoran gang, several times: two nights in a row outside a church (December 2003), once while out walking his dog at night (March 2004), and once at a bus stop (October 2004). Perez-Perez also testified that MS bothers everybody, not just, or even primarily,…