NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 21a0332n.06 No. 20-4035 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED Jul 13, 2021 FELIPE GREGORIO-ORDONEZ, ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk ) Petitioner, ) ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW v. ) FROM THE UNITED STATES ) BOARD OF IMMIGRATION MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, ) APPEALS ) Respondent. ) ) BEFORE: GUY, GIBBONS, and GRIFIFN, Circuit Judges. GRIFFIN, Circuit Judge. Felipe Gregorio-Ordonez, a native and citizen of Guatemala, petitions for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals order denying his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and withholding of removal under the Convention Against Torture. We deny his petition. I. Petitioner entered the United States without inspection in December 2015. (A.R. 319.) He was placed in removal proceedings when the Department of Homeland Security filed a Notice to Appear with the Immigration Court, charging him with removability for being present in the United States without admission or parole under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i). (A.R. 319.) Gregorio-Ordonez conceded his removability, (A.R. 123–24, 177), but soon after filed an application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). (A.R. 163–74, 178–300.) No. 20-4035, Gregorio-Ordonez v. Garland The Immigration Judge (IJ) held a hearing on Gregorio-Ordonez’s application. (A.R. 128– 154.) There, petitioner testified that in 2013, gang members armed with guns and knives broke into his house in Huehuetenango, Guatemala, and attempted to recruit him into their gang. (A.R. 138.) Petitioner’s grandfather, armed only with a wooden stick, chased them off. (A.R. 138.) He did not report the incident to police. (A.R. 140.) This 2013 incident was the only time Gregorio-Ordonez was threatened (or harmed) in Guatemala, although he remained in the country until 2015. (A.R. 137.) He had never seen the gang members previously and did not see them again. (A.R. 138, 140, 147.) However, he testified that he had knowledge of other problems caused by gangs in Guatemala, including a friend who had been killed by a gang, and a neighbor who had been harmed for refusing to join a gang. (A.R. 141–43.) Because of the incident he experienced and his knowledge of harm to others, petitioner testified that he feared returning because the gangs of Guatemala would “want to recruit [him].” (A.R. 144–45.) If he refused to join, petitioner feared that they would harm or kill him. (A.R. 145.) Further, his counsel theorized that the harm he had encountered was based on his social group of “Mayan Chuj males between the ages of 15 and 25 who lack adequate governmental protection.” (A.R. 134–35; see also A.R. 161.) The IJ denied petitioner’s application and ordered him removed to Guatemala. (A.R. 82– 88.) She concluded that Gregorio-Ordonez had not established past persecution through the single incident discussed above because the perpetrators “made no specific threats against him and left and never came back.” (A.R. 87.) The IJ further noted that petitioner experienced no other gang- related issues in the two years between the incident and his entry to the …
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