Opinion
No. 14-1399
10-10-2014
Jose Abelino Mendoza-Mejia Petitioner v. Eric H. Holder, Jr., Attorney General of United States Respondent
Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals [Unpublished] Before COLLOTON, BOWMAN, and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM.
El Salvadoran citizen Jose Abelino Mendoza-Mejia petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals upholding an immigration judge's denial of withholding of removal. Because we are bound by opinions of earlier panels, see Gaitan v. Holder, 671 F.3d 678, 681 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 133 S. Ct. 526 (2012), we are foreclosed from reconsidering this Court's determination that the group Mendoza-Mejia proposed is not cognizable as a particular social group for purposes of withholding of removal, see De Castro-Gutierrez v. Holder, 713 F.3d 375, 380 (8th Cir. 2013) (explaining that to qualify for withholding of removal, an alien must show a clear probability that his life or freedom will be threatened in the country to which he is being removed because of, among other things, his membership in a particular social group). The petition for review is denied.