
    Wagner A. Monterroso DIVAS Petitioner v. Jefferson B. SESSIONS, III, Attorney General of the United States Respondent
    No. 17-1089
    United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.
    Submitted: October 24, 2017
    Filed: October 30, 2017
    
      Chinedu I. Igbokwe, Eraeka J. Igbokwe, Banwo & Igbokwe Law Firm, Omaha, NE, for Petitioner
    Andrea Gevas, Ashley Young Martin, Carl H. McIntyre, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, Office of Immigration Litigation, Washington, DC, Oil, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Respondent
    Before WOLLMAN, GRUENDER, and BENTON, Circuit Judges.
   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.  