Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca8-05-02144/USCOURTS-ca8-05-02144-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Alberto Gonzales
Respondent
Eufemia Nohemi Lopez de Leon
Petitioner

Document Text:

United States Court of Appeals

FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

___________

No. 05-2144

___________

Eufemia Nohemi Lopez De Leon, *

*

Petitioner, *

* Petition for Review

v. * of an Order of the

* Board of Immigration Appeals.

Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General *

of the United States, * [UNPUBLISHED]

*

Respondent. *

___________

Submitted: February 7, 2006

Filed: February 14, 2006

___________

Before RILEY, MAGILL, and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.

___________

PER CURIAM.

Eufemia Lopez De Leon (Lopez), a native of Guatemala, petitions for review

of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which affirmed an

Immigration Judge’s (IJ’s) denial of asylum and withholding of removal.

We will uphold the BIA’s decision if it is supported by substantial evidence on

the record as a whole. See Zheng v. Gonzales, 415 F.3d 955, 959 (8th Cir. 2005)

(standard of review). The BIA found that Lopez failed to meet her burden of

establishing eligibility for asylum because she had not shown that the incidents she

had suffered were on account of a protected ground. We agree substantial evidence

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supported this determination. See INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 479-80,

482-84 (1992) (upholding denial of asylum to Guatemalan citizen who claimed to

have fled guerrilla forces attempting to recruit him, as record did not compel finding

that guerrillas would persecute him based on his political opinion rather than because

of his refusal to fight with guerrillas; it is not sufficient that guerrillas were attempting

to fill their ranks); Gomez v. Gonzales, 425 F.3d 543, 545-47 (8th Cir. 2005) (to

reverse finding that alleged persecution was not based on protected ground, “it is

necessary that the record compel the finding that a protected ground motivated the

[persecutors’] actions”); Dominguez v. Ashcroft, 336 F.3d 678, 680 (8th Cir. 2003)

(asylum applicant, who did not allege that guerrillas sought to recruit him because of

his political beliefs and who testified that he refused to join guerrillas because he was

afraid he would be killed, did not demonstrate that persecution he feared was based

on his political opinion; reasonable fact-finder could conclude that guerrillas were not

concerned with applicant’s political beliefs and were simply trying to fill their ranks).

Because Lopez’s asylum claim fails, her claim for withholding of removal necessarily

fails as well. See Turay v. Ashcroft, 405 F.3d 663, 667 (8th Cir. 2005)

(withholding-of-removal standard is more rigorous than asylum standard).

We also reject Lopez’s argument that she was denied due process at her asylum

hearing. See United States v. Torres-Sanchez, 68 F.3d 227, 230 (8th Cir. 1995)

(establishment of fundamentally unfair deportation hearing in violation of due process

requires showing of both fundamental procedural error and resulting prejudice).

Questioning Lopez was within the IJ’s duty to develop the record below, see 8 U.S.C.

§ 1229a(b)(1) (during removal proceeding, IJ “shall . . . receive evidence, and

interrogate, examine, and cross-examine the alien and any witnesses”), and Lopez’s

counsel was not prevented from presenting her case, notwithstanding that a more civil

and respectful discourse from an IJ would be appropriate, cf. Colmenar v. INS, 210

F.3d 967, 971 (9th Cir. 2000) (due process violation where proceeding was so

fundamentally unfair that alien was prevented from reasonably presenting his case;

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remanding where IJ indicated he had prejudged merits of case, and refused to let alien

testify about any material included in written asylum application).

Accordingly, we deny the petition.

______________________________

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