Pinto v. Holder, 06-73369

• Decision Date: 12 August 2011
• Docket Number: Agency No. A072-530-318,No. 06-73369,06-73369
• Parties: EPIFANIO TEO PINTO, Petitioner, v. ERIC H. HOLDER, Jr., Attorney General, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

EPIFANIO TEO PINTO, Petitioner,

v.ERIC H. HOLDER, Jr., Attorney General, Respondent.

No. 06-73369

Agency No. A072-530-318

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

Argued and Submitted October 8, 2010

Dated: August 12, 2011

NOT FOR PUBLICATION

MEMORANDUM^*

On Petition for Review of an Order of the

Board of Immigration Appeals

Argued and Submitted October 8, 2010

Pasadena, California

Before: FISHER and BYBEE, Circuit Judges, and SHEA, District Judge.^**

Petitioner Epifanio Teo Pinto, a native and citizen of Guatemala, petitions for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA") decision reversing an immigration judge's grant of asylum and denying his application for asylum,withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. We deny the petition for review.

Petitioner raises two arguments. First, he argues that, contrary to the BIA's conclusion, he was persecuted by Guatemalan guerillas on account of his political opinion. Under the substantial evidence standard, we may reverse the BIA's determination that Petitioner failed to establish persecution on account of a ground enumerated in 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42)(A) only if a reasonable fact-finder would have been compelled to reach a different conclusion. Cruz-Navarro v. INS, 232 F.3d 1024, 1028-30 (9th Cir. 2000). Here, the record does not compel the conclusion that the Guatemalan guerillas attempted to recruit Petitioner because of Petitioner's actual or imputed political opinion. As regards Petitioner's actual political opinion, his testimony that he refused to join the guerillas because he did not like fighting is insufficient to establish that his refusal to join the guerillas was politically motivated. See INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 482 (1992). And as regards any imputed political opinion, Petitioner's testimony—that the guerillas beat him to discover whether he had reported any of the guerillas' activities to the Guatemalan army and that they told him that if he refused to join them, he would meet the same fate as his uncle, who was killed while serving in the Guatemalan army—is insufficient to establish that the guerillas imputed to Petitioner a pro-government political opinion. See Cruz-Navarro, 232 F.3d at 1030 ("While the guerillas may have regarded Cruz as an informant, this is not akin to imputing a political belief to him."); Sangha v. INS, 103 F.3d 1482, 1489-90 (9th Cir.1997) (holding that applicant failed to establish imputed political opinion where he presented no evidence that an anti-governmental guerilla...