Martin v. Barr, No. 18-1059 (8th Cir. 2019)
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The Eighth Circuit denied a petition for review of the BIA's decision affirming the IJ's denial of asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). The court held that substantial evidence in the administrative record supported the BIA's finding that petitioner and his son failed to prove past persecution.
The court held that petitioner failed to establish an objective nexus between fear of future persecution and a protected ground. Although petitioner claimed a well-founded fear on account of his Mam ethnicity, the BIA found insufficient proof that the harm his family suffered during the guerilla conflict was due to their ethnicity, no evidence that private persons who claimed the family's land after they fled to Mexico acted on account of their ethnicity, and no evidence of a pattern or practice against Mam people in Guatemala. Furthermore, claims of fear of future persecution by the Zetas was not related to a protected ground.
Court Description: Loken, Author, with Melloy and Erickson, Circuit Judges] Petition for Review - Immigration. Petitioners' testimony failed to establish past persecution that rose to the level of protection; having failed to establish past persecution, petitioners are not entitled to a presumption of a well-founded fear of future persecution and must prove future fear that is both objectively and subjectively well-founded; the BIA did not err in finding that petitioners had failed to establish an objective nexus between fear of future persecution and a protected ground; the BIA did not err in determining there was insufficient proof that the harm inflicted on petitioners was because of their Mam ethnicity; claims of fear of future persecution by the Zetas was not related to a protected ground; having failed to establish eligibility for asylum, petitioners necessarily could not meet the more rigorous standards for withholding of removal or CAT relief.
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