NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _______________________ No. 20-2272 _______________________ MAYRON DANILO CASTELLANOS-GONZALEZ, Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA _______________________ On Petition for Review from the Board of Immigration Appeals BIA-1 No. A206-313-957 Immigration Judge: John P. Ellington __________________________ Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) June 21, 2021 Before: SMITH, Chief Judge, MATEY, and FISHER, Circuit Judges (Filed: June 22, 2021) __________________________ OPINION* __________________________ * This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not constitute binding precedent. SMITH, Chief Judge. Mayron Castellanos-Gonzalez seeks review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decision affirming the Immigration Judge’s (IJ) denial of withholding of removal. For the reasons that follow, we will deny the petition for review. I. The Government initiated removal proceedings against Castellanos- Gonzalez in July 2014. He applied for withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). At his hearing before the IJ, Castellanos-Gonzalez testified that he grew up in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. In 2006, members of the MS-13 gang attempted to recruit him. He refused because he is an evangelical Christian and gang membership is against his religion. In response, the gang members threatened to kill him. After giving him a week to reconsider joining, the same gang members shot him. Castellanos-Gonzalez suffered serious injuries. He did not report the attack to the police, and no one was arrested for the shooting. After recovering, Castellanos-Gonzalez left for another town, Puerto Cortes, about two and a half hours away by bus from San Pedro Sula. He lived in Puerto Cortes without incident for seven years, although he went back and forth to San Pedro Sula because his wife and family remained there. In 2013, while leaving 2 San Pedro Sula on a bus to return to Puerto Cortes, Castellanos-Gonzalez had another violent encounter with armed gang members. Again, he did not report the incident to the police. He left for the United States thereafter but was soon deported. Castellanos-Gonzalez re-entered the United States in July 2014. The IJ found Castellanos-Gonzalez credible and concluded that the harm he experienced rose to the level of persecution. But the IJ denied withholding of removal because Castellanos-Gonzalez failed to show that the harm was “on account of” his religion.1 On appeal, the BIA determined there was no clear error in the IJ’s finding. The BIA also declined to remand the matter to the IJ to consider whether Castellanos-Gonzalez was harmed on account of membership in a particular social group (PSG). Castellanos-Gonzalez timely filed this petition for review.2 II. To qualify for withholding of removal, Castellanos-Gonzalez needed to “establish a ‘clear probability of persecution,’ i.e., that it is more likely than not, 1 The IJ also denied CAT relief. Because Castellanos-Gonzalez did not contest that denial before the BIA or in his petition for review, we need not consider the CAT claim further. 2 We have jurisdiction to review the BIA’s final order of removal. Shehu …
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