United States Court of Appeals

For the Eighth Circuit

___________________________

No. 17-1185

___________________________

Lleyson Carreto Carreto

lllllllllllllllllllllPetitioner

v.

Jefferson B. Sessions, III, Attorney General of the United States

lllllllllllllllllllllRespondent

____________

Petition for Review of an Order of the

 Board of Immigration Appeals

____________

 Submitted: October 31, 2017

Filed: November 3, 2017 

[Unpublished]

____________

Before COLLOTON, BOWMAN, and KELLY, Circuit Judges.

____________

PER CURIAM.

Guatemalan citizen Lleyson Carreto Carreto petitions for review of an order of

the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) dismissing his appeal from the decision of
an immigration judge (IJ), which denied him asylum. Carreto Carreto sought 1

immigration relief based on his membership in the particular social group

“impoverished Guatemalan males who are victims of gang violence and who would

be targeted upon their return based on past experiences,” and on his status as a

returnee from the United States who would be perceived as having money.

After careful consideration of Carreto Carreto’s arguments and the record, we

conclude that substantial evidence supports the finding that he failed to show past

persecution in Guatemala, or a well founded fear of persecution there, due to one of

the five protected grounds: race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular

social group, or political opinion. See 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b)(1)(B)(i) (listing asylum

grounds); De Castro-Gutierrez v. Holder, 713 F.3d 375, 379 (8th Cir. 2013) (standard

of review). Specifically, we determine that (1) neither of the proposed groups

constituted a particular social group; (2) to the extent Carreto Carreto feared general

violence in Guatemala, his fear was not based on a protected ground; and (3) he did

not establish the harm inflicted by the gang was on any protected ground for purposes

of asylum relief. See id. at 380 (BIA requires particular social group to be defined

with particularity and not defined just by fact that its members have been targeted for

persecution); Matul-Hernandez v. Holder, 685 F.3d 707, 712-13 (8th Cir. 2012)

(Guatemalans returning from the United States who are perceived as wealthy is not

particular social group); Gaitan v. Holder, 671 F.3d 678, 682 (8th Cir. 2012) (group--

young Salvadoran males who have been subjected to recruitment and have rejected

or resisted gang membership based on personal opposition--was not sufficiently

narrow to cover discrete class of persons who would be perceived as group by rest of

society, so petitioner was no different from any other Salvadoran who has faced gang

violence); Krasnopivtsev v. Ashcroft, 382 F.3d 832, 839-40 (8th Cir. 2004) (applicant

The IJ’s denials of withholding of removal and relief under the Convention 1

Against Torture are not before this court. See Chay-Velasquez v. Ashcroft, 367 F.3d

751, 756 (8th Cir. 2004) (alien waives claim by not meaningfully challenging it in his

brief).

-2-
must demonstrate particularized fear of persecution directed at him, not fear of

general violence). The petition is denied. See 8th Cir. R. 47B.

______________________________

-3-