NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 23a0292n.06 No. 22-3643 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED Jun 23, 2023 ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk RIQUELMER LEONARDO LOPEZ GARCIA, ) Petitioner, ) ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW v. ) FROM THE BOARD OF ) IMMIGRATION APPEALS ) MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, ) OPINION Respondent. ) ) Before: WHITE, THAPAR, and NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judges. NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judge. Riquelmer Leonardo Lopez Garcia seeks asylum, withholding of removal based on his membership in a particular social group, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). As for his asylum and withholding claims, the Immigration Judge (IJ) denied his application because she found him not to be credible and because his social group was non-cognizable. And she found that he failed to submit sufficient evidence to show that he was eligible for CAT relief. Assuming Lopez Garcia’s credibility, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) affirmed based on the IJ’s other reasons. Lopez Garcia appeals the BIA’s decision. Because the BIA correctly found Lopez Garcia’s particular social group non- cognizable, and because we find his CAT claim to be meritless, we AFFIRM the denial of Lopez Garcia’s petition. No. 22-3643, Lopez Garcia v. Garland I. A. Lopez Garcia was born in Guatemala in 1999. He lived there until the age of 17, when he entered the United States. Upon his arrival at the California border in November 2016, Lopez Garcia turned himself into Border Patrol and told them that a Guatemalan gang had tried to recruit him and had “threatened him about nine times.” (A.R. 9-2, Page 000130, 196). Lopez Garcia planned to stay with his father, who was already living in Michigan. He was given a notice to appear and was released to his father. Lopez Garcia applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the CAT. In his application, Lopez Garcia claimed that armed and tattooed men had kidnapped him and his friend. After the friend told the gang members that Lopez Garcia’s father was in the United States, they demanded that he give them his father’s phone number, presumably so that they could extort money from Lopez Garcia’s father. When Lopez Garcia refused, they threatened to kill him and his family. He claimed that the gang members “gave [him] a gun and told [him] to find the money” and that “almost every 15 days [he] would give them money.” (Id. at Page 000603). And he claimed that he feared being kidnapped, tortured, and murdered if returned “precisely because [he] stopped paying them and escaped to [the] United States.” (Id.). B. On May 24, 2019, Lopez Garcia had a hearing before an IJ on his claims. Before Lopez Garcia testified, his attorney identified his particular social group as “young Guatemalan males who are perceived to be wealthy because they have family in the United States, and as a result, are extorted by gang members.” (Id. at Page 000125). 2 No. 22-3643, Lopez Garcia v. Garland Lopez Garcia testified. His …
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