Ochoa

MEMORANDUM **

Joel Escobar Ochoa seeks asylum and withholding of removal. The Immigration Judge (“IJ”) determined that he was ineligible for asylum and withholding of removal under the Immigration and Naturalization Act’s (“INA”) persecutor bar, 8 U.S.C. § 1158 (b)(2)(A)(i), 8 U.S.C. § 1231 (b)(3)(B)®, due to his actions as a Guatemalan police officer. The IJ also found him statutorily eligible for voluntary departure but denied him this relief as a matter of discretion. The Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirmed without opinion and Escobar Ochoa petitioned this court to review the decision.

Escobar Ochoa later moved to reopen his proceedings so that he could again request voluntary departure based on his subsequent marriage to a U.S. citizen and the visa petition his wife had filed on his behalf. The BIA denied his request. Es-cobar Ochoa filed a motion for reconsideration, which the BIA also denied. He then petitioned for judicial review of this second denial, which was consolidated with his first petition for review.

We hold that Escobar Ochoa is barred from receiving asylum or withholding of removal because substantial evidence supports the IJ’s decision that he…