United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit No. 19-1994 JOSE CECILIO RUIZ-VARELA, Petitioner, v. WILLIAM P. BARR, United States Attorney General, Respondent. PETITION FOR REVIEW OF AN ORDER OF THE BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS Before Howard, Chief Judge, Kayatta, Circuit Judge, Casper, District Judge. Randy Olen for petitioner. Julia J. Tyler, Trial Attorney, Office of Immigration Litigation, with whom Ethan P. Davis, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, and Jennifer P. Levings, Senior Litigation Counsel, were on brief for respondent. December 23, 2020 Of the District of Massachusetts, sitting by designation. Casper, District Judge. Petitioner Jose Cecilio Ruiz-Varela ("Ruiz"), a native and citizen of Honduras, seeks review of a final order of removal issued by the Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA"), dismissing his appeal from the decision of an immigration judge ("IJ") denying his request for withholding of removal under Section 241(b)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act ("INA"), 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3). Having concluded that there was substantial evidence to support the BIA's decision to deny Ruiz's application for withholding of removal where he failed to establish the required nexus between his treatment by the police and his membership in a particular social group (here, his immediate family), the Court denies the petition for review. I. Ruiz initially entered the United States in 2001. Agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") encountered him here in 2009 and because he was in the country illegally, he was placed in removal proceedings. As a result, Ruiz accepted voluntary departure and returned to Honduras in 2009. Once back in his hometown in Honduras, Ruiz worked in construction, but often worked at his father's pool hall. Although they had other family members in the area, the only family members to work there were Ruiz and his father. His father's establishment, located in the front part of the residence Ruiz - 2 - shared with his parents, was very successful and was frequented by neighbors, friends, family and members of the National Police. Sometime after his return, members of the National Police made extortionate demands for money in exchange for "protection." Neither Ruiz nor his father thought his father should pay these demands and they were not going to pay even after the threats continued. Even after the police at some point threatened to kill his son, Ruiz's father refused the demands and told the officers that he was going to report them and expose their scheme. Sometime after this response, in late 2011, Ruiz was returning home at night with a friend on the friend's motorcycle from a party nearby. They came upon a roadblock guarded by military and local police. As they proceeded through the roadblock without stopping, Ruiz recognized some of the officers there as those who had attempted the extortion. According to Ruiz, these officers saw them and immediately opened fire at them, firing approximately six shots. In response, his friend sped up on the motorcycle and the officers then fired fifty to seventy more rounds at ...
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