Filed: Feb. 11, 2021
Latest Update: Feb. 11, 2021
Case: 19-60611 Document: 00515740818 Page: 1 Date Filed: 02/10/2021
United States Court of Appeals
for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals
Fifth Circuit
FILED
February 10, 2021
No. 19-60611 Lyle W. Cayce
Summary Calendar Clerk
Tranquilino Matias-Matias,
Petitioner,
versus
William P. Barr, U.S. Attorney General,
Respondent.
Petition for Review of an Order of the
Board of Immigration Appeals
BIA No. A205 289 564
Before Davis, Stewart, and Dennis, Circuit Judges.
Per Curiam:*
Tranquilino Matias-Matias, a native and citizen of Guatemala,
petitions this court to review the decision of the Board of Immigration
Appeals (BIA) dismissing his appeal of the Immigration Judge’s (IJ) denial of
his application for withholding of removal. Matias-Matias sought
*
Pursuant to 5th Circuit Rule 47.5, the court has determined that this
opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited
circumstances set forth in 5th Circuit Rule 47.5.4.
Case: 19-60611 Document: 00515740818 Page: 2 Date Filed: 02/10/2021
No. 19-60611
withholding of removal on account of his membership in a particular social
group (PSG), which he identified as “Guatemalan men who fear violence and
delinquency in their home country.”
We review factual findings under the substantial evidence standard
and legal questions de novo, giving deference to the BIA’s interpretation of
any ambiguous immigration statutes. Orellana-Monson v. Holder, 685 F.3d
511, 517-18 (5th Cir. 2012). Under the substantial evidence standard, we may
not reverse the BIA’s factual findings unless “the evidence was so
compelling that no reasonable factfinder could conclude against it.” Wang v.
Holder,
569 F.3d 531, 537 (5th Cir. 2009).
Here, the evidence does not compel a finding that Matias-Matias’s
proposed PSG—“Guatemalan men who fear violence and delinquency in
their home country”—is a cognizable PSG. We have declined to recognize
as PSGs various permutations of groups of individuals who are subjected to
gang violence based on their refusal to join gangs or accede to their demands
or groups that are overly broad and encompass a wide cross-section of a
country’s population. See Orellana-Monson, 685 F.3d at 521-22; Gonzales-
Veliz v. Barr,
938 F.3d 219, 232 (5th Cir. 2019). Additionally, Matias-Matias
now raises several more proposed PSGs for this court to consider, which
include “young man protecting himself from the persecution that non-
government actors like criminal organizations exert over the Guatemalan
society,” “low income, young Guatemalan male,” “Guatemalan male victim
of the imminent and menacing threats of the criminal organizations who
harmed him[,] and continued with the threatening activity against him, even
after he fled for safety to the United States,” and “Guatemalan males [sic]
victims of violence the government of Guatemala is unable or unwilling to
control.” Because he did not exhaust his administrative remedies as to those
claims, we lack jurisdiction to review them, and the petition will be dismissed
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No. 19-60611
as to those claims. See Omari v. Holder, 562 F.3d 314, 318-19, 321-23 (5th Cir.
2009); Wang v. Ashcroft,
260 F.3d 448, 452-53 (5th Cir. 2001).
Accordingly, the BIA did not err in concluding that the petitioner
failed to establish a cognizable PSG. For the foregoing reasons, the Petition
for Review is DENIED.
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