Court Opinion

ID: 9381300
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-03-22 17:01:48.125613+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:17:31.572383
License: Public Domain

FILED
                            NOT FOR PUBLICATION
                                                                            MAR 22 2023
                    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS                       MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
                                                                          U.S. COURT OF APPEALS

                            FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

HENRY ADALBERTO DOMINGUEZ-                       No.   20-71881
ALVAYERO,
                                                 Agency No. A208-567-658
              Petitioner,

 v.                                              MEMORANDUM*

MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney
General,

              Respondent.

                     On Petition for Review of an Order of the
                         Board of Immigration Appeals

                            Submitted March 10, 2023**
                               Pasadena, California

Before: KLEINFELD, WATFORD, and COLLINS, Circuit Judges.

      Henry Adalberto Dominguez-Alvayero petitions this Court for a review of

the Board of Immigration Appeals’s decision affirming the immigration judge’s

      *
             This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
      **
             The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
denials of his applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection

under the Convention Against Torture (CAT).

      We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(1). Because the Board

adopted the immigration judge’s decision in its entirety and added its own

comments, we review the decisions of both the Board and the immigration judge.

Gonzalez-Castillo v. Garland, 47 F.4th 971, 976 (9th Cir. 2022). We review legal

conclusions de novo and factual findings for substantial evidence. Plancarte

Sauceda v. Garland, 23 F.4th 824, 831 (9th Cir. 2022). Our review is limited to

the grounds actually relied on by the agency. Garcia v. Wilkinson, 988 F.3d 1136,

1142 (9th Cir. 2021).

      For Dominguez-Alvayero’s asylum and withholding-of-removal claims, the

immigration judge correctly decided that his proposed social group of “Salvadorian

young men” or “young Salvadorian men from El Salvador” falls short of the

requirement of a common immutable characteristic and hence cannot constitute a

protected ground for the two requested forms of relief. See Villegas Sanchez v.

Garland, 990 F.3d 1173, 1180–81 (9th Cir. 2021). Moreover, the agency

permissibly concluded that Dominguez-Alvayero’s reliance on a proposed social

group of persons opposed to gang recruitment did not establish a nexus to a

protected ground. See Santos-Lemus v. Mukasey, 542 F.3d 738, 745–47 (9th Cir.

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2008), abrogated on other grounds by Henriquez-Rivas v. Holder, 707 F.3d 1081,

1093 (9th Cir. 2013) (en banc).

      For his claim under the CAT, nothing in the record compels us to reverse the

immigration judge’s finding that Dominguez-Alvayero failed to establish that it is

more likely than not that he will face torture “inflicted by or at the instigation of or

with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an

official capacity.” Aguilar-Ramos v. Holder, 594 F.3d 701, 704 (9th Cir. 2010)

(quoting 8 C.F.R. § 1208.18(a)(1)). Dominguez-Alvayero alleges he would be

tortured by members of the MS Gang if removed to El Salvador, and generally

claims that the police in El Salvador are corrupt and associated with the gang. Yet

he conceded at the hearing that Salvadorian police sometimes “do investigate

crimes committed by gang members,” including the MS Gang’s alleged murder of

his cousin. Dominguez-Alvayero claims that, on one occasion, police officers

searched and handcuffed him while also warning that the MS Gang was targeting

him. But the immigration judge reasonably concluded that the fact these officers

warned Dominguez-Alvayero, rather than turn him over to the gang members,

undermines his claim that the police would assist in or acquiesce to his torture.

      PETITION DENIED.

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