[DO NOT PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

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No. 14-14782

Non-Argument Calendar

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Agency No. A200-952-758

JOAQUIN GARCIA GARCIA, 

 Petitioner,

versus

U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, 

 Respondent.

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Petition for Review of a Decision of the

Board of Immigration Appeals

________________________

(July 29, 2015)

Before TJOFLAT, HULL and WILSON, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM: 

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Joaquin Garcia Garcia, through counsel, petitions for review of the Board of 

Immigration Appeals’s (“BIA”) dismissal of his appeal from the Immigration 

Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of his application for withholding of removal under the 

Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”). On appeal, Garcia contends that he 

demonstrated statutory eligibility for withholding of removal based on his fear of 

future persecution because of his membership in a particular social group. After 

review, we deny Garcia’s petition for review.

I. BACKGROUND

In 2004, Garcia, a native and citizen of Mexico, entered the United States 

without inspection. In 2012, the Department of Homeland Security issued Garcia a 

notice to appear charging him with removability under INA § 212(a)(6)(A)(i), 8 

U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i), for being present in the United States without being 

admitted or paroled, and INA § 212(a)(7)(A)(i)(I), 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(7)(A)(i)(I), 

for being present without valid entry documents. Garcia does not challenge his 

removability.

A. Application for Withholding of Removal

On August 22, 2013, Garcia filed an application for withholding of removal

under INA § 241(b)(3), 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3).

1

 Garcia indicated that he sought 

 1

Garcia also unsuccessfully filed applications for asylum and relief under the United 

Nations Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). In his brief to this Court, however, Garcia does 

not challenge the denial of asylum and CAT relief. Therefore, we do not address these claims. 

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withholding of removal because of his fear of future persecution based on his 

membership in a particular social group, but he did not identify the particular 

social group to which he allegedly belonged. In his application and attached 

personal statement, Garcia stated that he feared returning to Mexico because of the 

country’s high rates of violence, kidnappings, and corruption. 

B. Evidence Before the IJ

At a hearing before the IJ, Garcia testified that he was afraid of being

kidnapped, assaulted, robbed, or killed in Mexico because of his “perceived 

wealth” in returning from the United States. Garcia claimed that there were 

“people,” both in “farm areas” and “big cities,” “constantly checking . . . who’s 

coming in and out [of Mexico]” to identify targets for kidnapping or robbing. 

Garcia believed that he would not be able to seek protection against such “people” 

from law enforcement because of government corruption. 

Garcia further testified that he personally knew an individual, Rulen 

Vialouis, who was kidnapped in Mexico in 2004 or 2005 for money. Garcia 

opined, based on information he received from family living in Mexico and news 

reports, that there had been a rise in gangs since he left Mexico. 

 

See Kazemzadeh v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 577 F.3d 1341, 1352 (11th Cir. 2009) (deeming abandoned

petitioner’s CAT claim to which petitioner’s brief made only a “passing reference”).

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Garcia conceded, however, that neither he nor any member of his family had 

ever been harmed while living in Mexico. At the time of his application, Garcia’s 

parents and two of his ten siblings still lived in Mexico. Garcia’s parents remained 

in the same family home where Garcia grew up in his home city of Yuriria, 

Guanajuato. Garcia estimated that his home city was 50 percent safer than “other 

areas in Mexico.” Garcia admitted that he originally came to the United States for 

work and not for protection and that there was nothing distinguishing him from any 

other person returning to Mexico from the United States. 

Before the IJ, Garcia also submitted U.S. Department of State reports 

concerning country conditions in Mexico, including a 2012 travel warning, a 2012 

Human Rights Report, and a 2013 Crime and Safety Report, as well as news

articles reporting on law enforcement corruption. 

Generally, the reports and articles stated that crime and violence, often in 

connection with drug-trafficking organizations, were widespread in Mexico but 

varied greatly by location. The 2012 travel warning noted that “[t]he number of 

kidnappings and disappearances throughout Mexico [was] of particular concern” 

and that members of both local and expatriate communities had been victims of 

kidnapping. Kidnapping remained a serious and underreported problem for 

persons of all socioeconomic levels, although the travel warning encouraged 

visitors to avoid displaying evidence of wealth. 

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The reports and articles further indicated that corruption, human rights 

abuses, and participation in criminal activity were rampant among police forces. 

Police at both the state and local level sometimes provided protection for, or acted

directly on behalf of, organized crime and drug traffickers. 

C. IJ’s Decision

On January 14, 2014, the IJ denied Garcia’s application for withholding of 

removal. The IJ found that Garcia’s general concern with escalating violence in 

Mexico did not establish past persecution or a probability of future persecution 

based on a protected ground. 

The IJ granted Garcia’s request for voluntary departure, stated that the 

voluntary departure order was valid for 60 days, and set a minimum bond of $500 

with an alternative order of removal to Mexico. 

D. Appeal to the BIA

Garcia appealed to the BIA, arguing that he satisfied the burden for 

withholding of removal by showing that he would more likely than not be the 

victim of violence at the hands of “criminal elements” if returned to Mexico. 

Garcia suggested that he belonged to a particular social group—“Mexican 

citizen[s] who had been living in the United States”—and contended that this 

group was the target of escalating violence in Mexico. 

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On September 22, 2014, the BIA dismissed Garcia’s appeal. As to Garcia’s 

withholding of removal claim, the BIA concluded that Garcia failed to show a 

nexus between a likelihood of future persecution and a protected ground under the 

INA. The BIA reasoned that while Garcia “fear[ed] crimes perpetrated by 

unknown persons,” this Court “has held that evidence consistent with private

violence . . . does not constitute evidence of persecution upon a statutorily 

protected ground.” The BIA rejected Garcia’s attempt to fit his “circumstances 

into [a] particular social group category,” noting that “ordinary crime does not 

constitute a basis for persecution.”2

 

II. DISCUSSION

To qualify for withholding of removal under the INA, an applicant must 

show that, if returned to his country, his “life or freedom would be threatened in 

that country because of [his] race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular 

social group, or political opinion.” INA § 241(b)(3)(A), 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3)(A);

Tan v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 446 F.3d 1369, 1375 (11th Cir. 2006). Where, as here, the 

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Although the BIA dismissed Garcia’s appeal, it issued a limited remand to the IJ to 

provide the requisite advisements for voluntary departure because it was unclear from the record 

whether the IJ had adequately provided Garcia these advisements. Despite the limited remand, 

the BIA’s order constitutes a final order of removal, such that we have jurisdiction over Garcia’s 

petition for review. See Del Pilar v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 326 F.3d 1154, 1156-57 (11th Cir. 2003). 

In addition, to the extent that the government contends that we should dismiss Garcia’s petition 

for review for prudential reasons, we DENY the government’s motion to dismiss. That motion 

raises certain issues that this Court has not yet expressly decided, and we need not decide these 

issues here because Garcia’s petition for review is meritless in any event. 

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applicant fails to show past persecution, he must demonstrate that it is more likely 

than not that he will be persecuted on account of a protected ground if removed to 

his country. See Tan, 446 F.3d at 1375.

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The applicant must present specific, detailed facts showing a good reason to 

fear that he will be singled out for persecution on account of a protected ground, 

and he must establish a nexus between the persecution he fears and the protected 

ground. See Rodriguez v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 735 F.3d 1302, 1310 (11th Cir. 2013); 

Sanchez v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 392 F.3d 434, 438 (11th Cir. 2004). We will not 

reverse a finding that an applicant failed to demonstrate a nexus between the 

alleged persecution and a protected ground unless the evidence compels a 

conclusion that the applicant has been or will be persecuted “because of” the 

protected ground. Rodriguez Morales v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 488 F.3d 884, 890 (11th 

Cir. 2007). 

Here, the BIA concluded that Garcia failed to demonstrate a nexus because 

his fear of “ordinary crime” or “private violence” by “unknown persons” did not 

amount to evidence of persecution based on a statutorily protected ground. We 

cannot say that the record compels a different conclusion. Garcia’s evidence 

established at most that crime, including kidnapping for ransom, is widespread in 

 3

We review only the decision of the BIA where the BIA did not expressly adopt the IJ’s 

decision. Mehmeti v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 572 F.3d 1196, 1199 (11th Cir. 2009). We review 

conclusions of law de novo and factual determinations under the substantial-evidence test. Id. 

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Mexico and that people within both the expatriate and local communities, and at all 

socioeconomic levels, may be targeted by gangs and drug-trafficking organizations 

for kidnapping. As a matter of law, such evidence of high levels of general 

criminal activity within a country alone is insufficient to “constitute evidence of 

persecution based on a statutorily protected ground.” See Ruiz v. U.S. Atty. Gen., 

440 F.3d 1247, 1258 (11th Cir. 2006) (holding that “evidence that . . . is consistent 

with acts of private violence . . . or that merely shows that a person has been the 

victim of criminal activity, does not constitute evidence of persecution based on a 

statutorily protected ground”); Rodriguez, 735 F.3d at 1310-11 (explaining that the 

petitioner “failed to establish a nexus between his membership in a particular 

social group and the harm he feared in Mexico” where the “record reflect[ed]

[only] that the members of his family were killed or kidnapped due to their failure 

to cooperate with the drug traffickers or were the victims of criminal activity”). 

Accordingly, we deny Garcia’s petition for review. 

PETITION DENIED. 

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