Garcia-Moctezuma v. Sessions, No. 16-4433 (8th Cir. 2018)
Annotate this CaseThe Eighth Circuit denied a petition for review of the BIA's order dismissing petitioner's appeal from the IJ's decision finding petitioner removable and denial of his applications for withholding of removal and for protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). The court held that petitioner waived his challenge to the IJ's application of the "one central reason" nexus standard to petitioner's withholding of removal application; substantial evidence supported the IJ's conclusion that petitioner's worship of Santa Muerte was not one central reason for his persecution by Mexican law enforcement; and substantial evidence supported the denial of petitioner's application for CAT protection.
Court Description: Goldberg, Author, with Wollman and Shepherd, Circuit Judges] Petition for Review - Immigration. Petitioner had not preserved for review the issue of whether the IJ erred in determining that the "one central reason" nexus standard should be read to apply to his withholding of removal claim, and the court would not consider the issue in this petition for review; substantial evidence supported the IJ's conclusion, adopted by the BIA, that petitioner's worship of Santa Muerte was not "one central reason" for his persecution by Mexican law enforcement; the IJ did not err in determining that petitioner had failed to show it was more likely than not that he would be tortured if he returned to Mexico, and the IJ did not err in denying CAT relief.
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