NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT ______________ No. 20-1180 ______________ EDVIN JOSUE ALVAREZ-LAJUJ, a/k/a/ Edvin Lajuj, Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ______________ On Petition for Review of a Decision and Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA-1: A206-361-295) Immigration Judge: John B. Carle ______________ Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) October 19, 2020 BEFORE: GREENAWAY, JR., COWEN, and FUENTES, Circuit Judges (Filed: March 3, 2021) _____________ OPINION* ______________ ______ GREENAWAY, JR., Circuit Judge. * This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not constitute binding precedent. Edvin Alvarez-Lajuj seeks review of the order of removal entered against him by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”). For the reasons below, we will affirm. I. BACKGROUND Alvarez-Lajuj is a 25-year-old Guatemalan citizen of indigenous Achi Mayan descent. In 2013, two members of a gang known as “Mara 18” stopped Alvarez-Lajuj while he was walking to school and interrogated him. The members told Alvarez-Lajuj that they knew where he lived and where he went to school, and that the gang would kill him if he did not join their ranks. While the gang members did not explicitly tell Alvarez-Lajuj that they had targeted him based on his indigenous ethnicity, Alvarez-Lajuj believes the gang specifically seeks to recruit indigenous individuals due to their lack of work opportunities and diminished protection from the police in Guatemala. Alvarez- Lajuj was not physically harmed during the encounter (hereinafter “the 2013 incident”), but he feared a second run-in with the Mara 18 gang and left Guatemala in the fall of 2013, entering the United States without inspection. U.S. immigration officials apprehended Alvarez-Lajuj shortly after his arrival and removed him to Guatemala. In early 2014, Alvarez-Lajuj again entered the United States without inspection. He settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On February 5, 2019, following Alvarez-Lajuj’s arrest in Philadelphia for simple assault, Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) officials took him into custody and detained him at York County Prison. DHS reinstated the removal order and provided Alvarez-Lajuj with a credible fear interview. The officials determined that Alvarez-Lajuj had exhibited a 2 credible fear of persecution or torture and therefore referred him to withholding-only proceedings before an immigration judge. Before the Immigration Judge (“IJ”), Alvarez-Lajuj applied for statutory withholding of removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3), and for protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”), 8 C.F.R. §§ 1208.16(c), 1208.18. Alvarez-Lajuj claimed that he feared returning to Guatemala because he and his family members have experienced discrimination based on their indigenous ethnicity. Alvarez-Lajuj also noted that after he left the country, Guatemalan gangs unrelated to Mara 18 killed two of his aunts—both of whom owned businesses— and two other relatives. Alvarez-Lajuj testified that all four relatives were killed for failing to make extortion payments. Alvarez-Lajuj feared that if he were to return to Guatemala, Mara 18 gang members would kill him for his prior refusal to join the group, or …
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