NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _____________ No. 19-1154 _____________ PATRICIO YANES-ZEPEDA, AKA Patricio Zepeda Yanes, AKA Christian Patricio Yanes Zepeda, AKA Oscar Zuniga, Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Respondent _____________ On Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (Agency No. A078-496-285) Immigration Judge: John B. Carle ______________ Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) November 19, 2019 ______________ Before: CHAGARES, MATEY, and FUENTES, Circuit Judges. (Filed: November 25, 2019) ___________ OPINION * ____________ * This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not constitute binding precedent. CHAGARES, Circuit Judge. Patricio Yanes-Zepeda petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirming an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of his applications for withholding of removal and for relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”) and rejecting his argument that the IJ lacked jurisdiction over his removal proceedings because of the Supreme Court’s decision in Pereira v. Sessions, 138 S. Ct. 2105 (2018). For the following reasons, we will deny his petition. I. Yanes-Zepeda is a native and citizen of Honduras. He illegally entered the United States in 2000 and was ordered deported on April 18, 2001. He re-entered the United States illegally on July 26, 2017. On November 7, 2017, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) served Yanes-Zepeda with a Notice of Intent/Decision to Reinstate (Form I-871) his 2001 deportation order. Yanes-Zepeda applied for withholding of removal and for CAT protection. Before the IJ, Yanes-Zepeda testified that he came to the United States out of fear of the MS-13 gang in Honduras. He described how MS-13 members extorted money from him through threatened violence and how, in 2012, after he refused to pay, gang members shot at his car with him inside. After the shooting, Yanes-Zepeda moved to another city; but, four years later, he received a phone call in which the caller informed him that “they found [him]” and demanded money. Administrative Record (“AR”) 143– 44. He paid the extortion money for a time, then filed a complaint with the police. The 2 gang found out about his complaint and ransacked his home. According to Yanes- Zepeda, the Honduran police took no action, so he decided to flee to the United States. Yanes-Zepeda argued that his experiences constitute past persecution; that he belongs to the protected social group of Honduran “civilian witnesses who have assisted law enforcement officials against violent gangs,” AR 239; that the gangs persecuted him because of his membership in that group; and that the gangs would torture him if he returned, and the Honduran government would be unable or unwilling to prevent it. The IJ found Yanes-Zepeda credible, but concluded that he did not demonstrate past persecution, did not belong to a cognizable protected social group, and, even if he did, he could not show that the violence he experienced was on account of his membership in that group. The ...
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