NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS APR 9 2021 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT JOSE A. GONZALEZ MORAN, No. 19-72838 Petitioner, Agency No. A215-906-360 v. MEMORANDUM* MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals Submitted April 6, 2021** Pasadena, California Before: W. FLETCHER, WATFORD, and HURWITZ, Circuit Judges. Jose Gonzalez Moran, a native and citizen of Mexico, petitions for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) order upholding the denial of his applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). We deny Gonzalez’s petition for review in * This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. ** The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2). Page 2 of 4 part and grant it in part. 1. Substantial evidence supports the BIA’s finding that Gonzalez failed to establish a nexus between any past or future harm and a protected ground for his asylum and withholding of removal claims. See Barajas-Romero v. Lynch, 846 F.3d 351, 360 (9th Cir. 2017). Before the immigration judge (IJ), Gonzalez sought relief based on an unspecified particular social group and explained that he feared harm because he was “caught in the territorial crossfire” between two rival drug cartels. Gonzalez credibly testified that he was targeted by two different cartels: The first cartel sought information about the whereabouts of his uncle, who was a member of a different cartel; the second cartel, whose members previously worked with his uncle, believed that Gonzalez had shared information with the first cartel. The BIA properly concluded that, rather than facing persecution on the basis of a particular social group, Gonzalez was “caught up in the crossfire of cartels fighting for territory” and thus merely a victim of general crime and violence unconnected to a protected ground. See Zetino v. Holder, 622 F.3d 1007, 1016 (9th Cir. 2010). Before the BIA, Gonzalez sought to raise the proposed particular social groups of “his uncle’s family” and “Mexicans perceived to have opposed and taken concrete steps against the cartels.” The BIA declined to address these groups because it held that Gonzalez failed to raise them before the IJ. See Honcharov v. Barr, 924 F.3d 1293, 1296–97 (9th Cir. 2019). Because the lack of a nexus is Page 3 of 4 dispositive, we need not decide whether the IJ should have considered any particular social groups not specifically raised by Gonzalez. The BIA properly denied his applications for both asylum and withholding of removal. 2. The BIA erred in its finding that Gonzalez failed to establish government or public official acquiescence to warrant protection under CAT. Gonzalez submitted a declaration stating that “armed men with soldiers’ uniforms on” participated in the second cartel attack, during which cartel members beat and threatened to kill him. …
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