Case ID: f-appx_70/html/0911-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Rolando VARGAS-LOPEZ, Petitioner, v. John ASHCROFT, Respondent.
    No. 02-3061.
    United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.
    Submitted Aug. 1, 2003.
    Decided Aug. 5, 2003.
    Before WOLLMAN, FAGG, and MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, Circuit Judges.
   PER CURIAM.

Guatemalan citizen Rolando Vargas-Lopez petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) affirming an Immigration Judge’s denial of Vargas-Lopez’s application for asylum and withholding of deportation. Vargas-Lopez argues his application should have been granted because he established a well-founded fear of persecution based on his membership in a social group and an imputed political opinion. After careful review of the record, we deny the petition.

We agree with the BIA that Vargas-Lopez did not show past persecution or a well-founded fear of future persecution, as there is no evidence the guerrilla forces recruited him because of his family’s history of providing support to the guerrillas, and no evidence the guerrillas imputed any particular political opinion to Vargas-Lopez. See INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 482-83, 112 S.Ct. 812, 117 L.Ed.2d 38 (1992). The denial of asylum and withholding of removal is also supported by evidence of changed conditions in Guatemala: guerrilla forces have disbanded and are participating in the political process. See Regalado-Garda v. INS, 305 F.3d 784, 788 (8th Cir.2002); Francois v. INS, 283 F.3d 926, 931 (8th Cir.2002).

Accordingly, we deny the petition.

A true copy.