Wagner A. Monterroso DIVAS Petitioner v. Jefferson B. SESSIONS, III, Attorney General of the United States Respondent, 699 F. App'x 586

PER CURIAM. Wagner A. Monterroso Divas challenges the Board of Immigration Appeals denial of withholding of removal. Having jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a), this court denies the petition for review. Divas argues that as a former pharmaceutical delivery driver, he is a member of a discrete social group in Guatemala. See 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3)(A).

This court declines to reach that issue but addresses an alternative, independently sufficient reason the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled against him: he did not prove the persecution he claims to have suffered at the hands of gang members was attributable to the Guatemalan government. See, e.g,, Menjivar v.

Gonzales, 416 F.3d 918, 921 (8th Cir. 2005) (“The BIA has adopted, and we have approved as reasonable, a definition of ‘persecution’ that requires a harm to be inflicted either by the government of a country or by persons or an organization that the government was unable or unwilling to control.” (quotation and brackets omitted)). The petition for review is denied.