Macedo

MEMORANDUM *

Hermes Macedo (“Macedo”) appeals the Board of Immigration Appeals’s (“BIA”) denial of his applications for withholding of removal under section 241(b)(3)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) and under the Convention Against Torture (CAT).

The Immigration Judge (“IJ”) correctly found Macedo ineligible for withholding of removal under section 241(b)(3)(B) of the INA because he was not persecuted on account of a protected ground. See 8 C.F.R. § 1208.16 (b). Substantial evidence underlies the IJ’s finding that Macedo never expressed any affirma *560 tive political belief, and that Josias de Oliveira Lula Filho (“Oliveira”) never imputed any such belief to Macedo. See Cruz-Navarro v. INS, 282 F.3d 1024, 1029-30 (9th Cir.2000). Instead, Oliveira irrationally blames Macedo for his wife’s death, and he appears determined to exact revenge for personal, not political, reasons.

This reality also dooms Macedo’s argument that he has been persecuted as a member of a protected social class: former police officers. Since there is no evidence that any other former officers have been targeted by Oliveira, substantial evidence supports the IJ’s conclusion that Oliveira…