NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FEB 26 2021 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT JESUS ALVAREZ-TORRES, No. 19-72277 Petitioner, Agency No. A205-764-388 v. MEMORANDUM* ROBERT M. WILKINSON, Acting Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals Argued and Submitted February 8, 2021 San Francisco, California Before: WARDLAW and BEA, Circuit Judges, and ROSENTHAL,** District Judge. Jesus Alvarez-Torres, a native and citizen of Mexico, petitions for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decision affirming an order by an immigration judge (IJ) denying his application for withholding of removal. Alvarez- * This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. ** The Honorable Lee H. Rosenthal, Chief United States District Judge for the Southern District of Texas, sitting by designation. 1 Torres had applied for withholding of removal based on past persecution and fear of future persecution stemming from his service as a police officer in Mexico. He contends that the IJ erred in denying his application and by taking administrative notice of “country conditions” without affording him prior notice and an opportunity to respond. Alvarez-Torres also contends that the IJ’s jurisdiction never vested because his Notice to Appear (NTA) lacked the time, date, and location of his removal proceedings. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252. When “the BIA agrees with and incorporates specific findings of the IJ while adding its own reasoning,” as it did here, we review the decisions from both the BIA and IJ (collectively, the “Agency”). Bhattarai v. Lynch, 835 F.3d 1037, 1042 (9th Cir. 2016). We review the Agency’s legal conclusions de novo and its denial of withholding of removal for “substantial evidence.” Parada v. Sessions, 902 F.3d 901, 908 (9th Cir. 2018). “Substantial evidence review means that we may only reverse the agency’s determination where the evidence compels a contrary conclusion from that adopted by the BIA.” Id. at 908–09 (internal citation omitted). 1. Alvarez-Torres bears the burden of proving eligibility for withholding of removal by demonstrating that he “is unable or unwilling to return to [Mexico] because of [past] persecution or a well-founded fear of [future] persecution.” Doe v. Holder, 736 F.3d 871, 877 (9th Cir. 2013) (internal citation omitted). He “must establish that any persecution was or will be on account of his membership” in a 2 protected social group. Ayala v. Holder, 640 F.3d 1095, 1097 (9th Cir. 2011) (emphasis in original). “The words ‘on account of’ and ‘because of’ address the persecutor’s motive for persecuting the victim.” Barajas-Romero v. Lynch, 846 F.3d 351, 357 (9th Cir. 2017). The administrative record does not compel a finding that Alvarez-Torres suffered past persecution “on account of” his service as a police officer. 1 First, in 1989, Alvarez-Torres was injured in the line of duty while responding to a shootout with members of the Familia Michoacana cartel. However, a police officer’s “role in disrupting ...
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