Ramos-Lopez V. Holder

Petitioner Erik Ramos-Lopez ("Ramos"), a Honduran national, petitions for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA") order denying asylum and withholding of removal. An Immigration Judge ("IJ") credited as true Ramos testimony that he refused recruitment into the Mara Salvatrucha ("MS-13"), a Central American gang, and that MS-13 members subsequently threatened to kill him. The dispositive issue in this case is whether Ramos suffered or has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of a particular social group - young Honduran men who have been recruited by the MS-13, but who refuse to join - or political opinion. The BIA recently determined that young Salvadoran men who have resisted recruitment into the MS-13 do not constitute a particular social group and that the refusal to join the MS-13 does not amount to a political opinion. In re S-E- G-, 24 I. & N. Dec. 579, 583, 589 (BIA 2008). Applying the principles of deference established in Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984), we defer to the BIAs decision with respect to social group and deny the petition.