United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 18-1059 ___________________________ Perfecto Martin Martin; Maynor Martin-Vicente lllllllllllllllllllllPetitioners v. William P. Barr, Attorney General of the United States of America lllllllllllllllllllllRespondent ____________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals ____________ Submitted: December 12, 2018 Filed: March 5, 2019 ____________ Before LOKEN, MELLOY, and ERICKSON, Circuit Judges. ____________ LOKEN, Circuit Judge. Perfecto Martin Martin, a native and citizen of Guatemala, entered the United States without inspection in 2010 and applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). His son, Maynor Martin- Vicente, entered the United States in 2014 and, based on the same events and similar circumstances as his father, applied for the same relief, both as a “rider” on Martin Martin’s application and in an independent asylum application. The Department of Homeland Security initiated removal proceedings. Both petitioners conceded removability. The Immigration Judge consolidated their removal proceedings and, after a hearing at which Martin Martin testified, denied all claims for relief in a lengthy opinion. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) affirmed in a thorough opinion. Martin Martin and Maynor petition for review of the BIA’s final agency action. See 8 U.S.C. § 1252. Concluding the BIA order was “supported by reasonable, substantial, and probative evidence on the record considered as a whole,” we deny the petition for review. INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 481 (1992) (standard of review); see 8 U.S.C. § 1252(b)(4)(B). I. Asylum Claims The Attorney General may grant asylum to a “refugee.” 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b)(1). “Refugee” is defined as an alien unable or unwilling to return to his home country “because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42)(A). “An applicant who has been found to have established . . . past persecution shall also be presumed to have a well-founded fear of [future] persecution.” 8 C.F.R. § 208.13. Martin Martin claims past persecution and a well-founded fear of future persecution in Guatemala because of his ethnicity and membership in a particular social group. We review the BIA’s findings on these issues under the deferential substantial evidence standard. See Menendez-Donis v. Ashcroft, 360 F.3d 915, 917-19 (8th Cir. 2004); Regalado-Garcia v. INS, 305 F.3d 784, 787-88 (8th Cir. 2002). Martin Martin was born in Guatemala on March 6, 1975. He is of indigenous Mam ethnicity and speaks the Mam (Maya) language. In 1984, he fled to Mexico with his family because of the ongoing conflict between guerilla forces and the Guatemalan government. At the asylum hearing, Martin Martin testified that, during the conflict, guerillas and the Guatemalan government fumigated crops and took -2- “everything” from the family, and Martin Martin’s grandfather was killed. When the family returned to Guatemala in 1996, their home was destroyed and their land taken; those now claiming ownership threatened the family and assaulted Martin Martin’s grandmother. He testified ...
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