NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _______________________ No. 20-2865 _______________________ CRISTOBAL GUZMAN-GARCIA, Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA __________________________ On Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals BIA No. A206-880-921 Immigration Judge: Steven A. Morley __________________________ Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) June 21, 2021 Before: SMITH, Chief Judge, MATEY, and FISHER, Circuit Judges (Filed July 14, 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. Cristobal Guzman-Garcia petitions for review of the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals affirming the Immigration Judge’s denial of his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture. For the reasons that follow, we will deny the petition. Guzman-Garcia, a native and citizen of Guatemala, entered the United States in December 2014 as an unaccompanied seventeen-year-old minor. The Department of Homeland Security issued a Notice to Appear charging him with being removable as an alien who had not been admitted or paroled into the United States in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i). Guzman-Garcia admitted he was removable, but applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). He claimed he was persecuted as a member of a particular social group (PSG). Before the Immigration Judge (IJ), Guzman-Garcia refined his PSG claim, alleging that gang members persecuted him on account of his membership in his own family.1 He alleged that gang members threatened to kidnap 1 An alien prosecuting a PSG claim, must “establish that the group [at issue] is (1) composed of members who share a common immutable characteristic, (2) defined with particularity, and (3) socially distinct within the society in question.” S.E.R.L. v. Attorney General, 894 F.3d 535, 540 (3d Cir. 2018) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). In S.E.R.L., we acknowledged that kinship might be a “defining characteristic” of a PSG. Id. at 556. 2 him and then seek ransom money from his father, who owned a cattle ranch. He also claimed that they intended to kill him. According to Guzman-Garcia, whom the IJ found to be credible, the gang’s threats against him started in 2007 after his father bought a parcel of farmland in Chirruman, Guatemala, on which to raise livestock. Guzman-Garcia, who was nine or ten at the time, testified that the threats appeared in notes that his father received from time to time. Guzman-Garcia also stated that he was personally threatened on his way to the store. In light of the continuing threats, his father took Guzman- Garcia to a farm he owned in Peten, Guatemala. Guzman-Garcia then stayed in Peten for three- to six-month periods, blending in as a farm worker. Although Guzman-Garcia was less visible while in Peten, he claimed this arrangement was still dangerous because there were gangs “all over the country.” AR209. The threats intensified in 2014. Guzman-Garcia explained that a gang …
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