19-3470-ag Quituizaca v. Garland In the United States Court of Appeals For the Second Circuit ________ AUGUST TERM 2021 ARGUED: JANUARY 18, 2022 DECIDED: NOVEMBER 1, 2022 No. 19-3470-ag XAVIER PUCHA QUITUIZACA, AKA MANUEL SANCHEZ RODRIGUEZ, Petitioner, v. MERRICK B. GARLAND, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ________ On Petition for Review of a Final Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals. ________ Before: KEARSE, WALKER, and SULLIVAN, Circuit Judges. ________ Xavier Pucha Quituizaca petitions for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decision affirming an Immigration Judge’s denial of his application for asylum and withholding of 2 No. 19-3470 removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). Quituizaca argues that the agency erred in denying his withholding of removal claim when it required that he demonstrate that his ethnicity was “at least one central reason” motivating his claimed persecution. He also challenges the BIA’s denial of his asylum claim and its finding that he waived his CAT claim. We hold that the withholding of removal statute is ambiguous as to the showing required to establish that a protected ground, such as ethnicity, motivated a persecutor. We also hold that the BIA’s interpretation that the “one central reason” standard applies to withholding of removal claims is reasonable and thus entitled to deference. Because we find that the BIA’s denial of Quituizaca’s asylum and withholding claims are supported by substantial evidence and that Quituizaca waived his CAT claim, we DENY the petition. Judge Sullivan concurs in Parts II and III and in the judgment, and files a separate concurring opinion as to Part I. ________ REBECCA RUTH PRESS, UnLocal, Inc. Community Immigration Legal Services, New York, NY (Xavier Pucha Quituizaca, pro se, Batavia, NY, on the briefs), for Petitioner. MICHELE Y. F. SARKO, Office of Immigration Litigation (Timothy G. Hayes, Senior Litigation Counsel, on the brief), for Jeffrey Bossert Clark, 3 No. 19-3470 Acting Assistant Attorney General—Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Respondent. ________ JOHN M. WALKER, JR., Circuit Judge: Xavier Pucha Quituizaca petitions for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decision affirming an Immigration Judge’s (IJ’s) denial of his application for asylum and withholding of removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). Quituizaca argues that the agency erred in denying his withholding of removal claim when it required that he demonstrate that his ethnicity was “at least one central reason” motivating his claimed persecution. He also challenges the BIA’s denial of his asylum claim and its finding that he waived his CAT claim. We hold that the withholding of removal statute is ambiguous as to the showing required to establish that a protected ground, such as ethnicity, motivated a persecutor. We also hold that the BIA’s interpretation that the “one central reason” standard applies to withholding of removal claims is reasonable and thus entitled to deference. Because we find that the BIA’s denial of Quituizaca’s asylum and withholding claims …
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