United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit No. 22-1535 MARCO DANILO SANTOS GARCIA, Petitioner, v. MERRICK B. GARLAND, United States Attorney General, Respondent. PETITION FOR REVIEW OF AN ORDER OF THE BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS Before Gelpí, Lynch, and Thompson, Circuit Judges. Daniel T. Welch, with whom Kevin P. MacMurray, Kristian R. Meyer, and MacMurray & Associates LLC were on brief, for petitioner. Joseph A. O'Connell, Attorney, Department of Justice, Office of Immigration Litigation, with whom Brian M. Boynton, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, and Cindy S. Ferrier, Assistant Director, were on brief, for respondent. April 28, 2023 LYNCH, Circuit Judge. Marco Danilo Santos Garcia ("Santos") seeks review of the Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA") decision of June 21, 2022, affirming the immigration judge's ("IJ") denial of his applications for asylum and withholding of removal under sections 208(b)(1)(A) and 241(b)(3)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act ("INA"), 8 U.S.C. §§ 1158(b)(1)(A), 1231(b)(3)(A). The BIA held that there was no error in the IJ's holdings that: (1) Santos did not meet his burden to show past persecution because the threats Santos faced in Guatemala "were not so menacing as to cause significant actual suffering or harm," (2) Santos "did not establish that the mistreatment he endured ha[d] the requisite nexus to a statutorily protected ground," and (3) Santos "did not show a well-founded fear of future persecution on account of a statutorily protected ground." Because substantial evidence supports the BIA's determination and the BIA committed no errors of law in that ruling, we deny Santos's petition for review. For the first time on appeal, Santos also purports to raise an argument based on a particular social group not made to the BIA, and we dismiss that unexhausted claim for lack of jurisdiction. I. Santos, a Guatemalan citizen, crossed the border from Mexico into the United States on or about April 26, 2016. On July 14, 2016, the Department of Homeland Security vacated its previous - 2 - Expedited Removal Order1 and issued Santos a Notice to Appear in removal proceedings, charging him with being subject to removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i). Santos conceded that he was subject to removal and admitted the factual allegations in the Notice to Appear. On March 7, 2017, Santos filed applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. II. We describe in general terms Santos's testimony to the IJ at the June 12, 2019, merits hearing concerning his application for relief and the arguments in his pre-hearing brief. Santos testified that he "fled from [Guatemala] because [his] life was in danger [due to] people threatening [him] -- people [who] gave [him] death threats." Santos claimed that when he was 23 years old in his hometown of 800 people, members of the Renewed Democratic Liberty ("Lider") Party threatened him on three occasions in March and April 2016. He alleged these threats were due to his support of the FCN political party during the 2015 1 On May 1, 2016, …
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