Court Opinion

ID: 9353897
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-01-13 01:00:22.146329+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:09:33.584933
License: Public Domain

Case: 22-60390        Document: 00516609076             Page: 1      Date Filed: 01/12/2023

             United States Court of Appeals
                  for the Fifth Circuit                                 United States Court of Appeals
                                                                                 Fifth Circuit

                                     ____________                              FILED
                                                                         January 12, 2023
                                      No. 22-60390                        Lyle W. Cayce
                                    Summary Calendar                           Clerk
                                    ____________

   Maria Del Carmen Salmeron-Acosta; Fernando De Jesus
   Salmeron-Acosta,

                                                                                Petitioners,

                                            versus

   Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney General,

                                                                               Respondent.
                     ______________________________

                        Petition for Review of an Order of the
                            Board of Immigration Appeals
                              Agency No. A209 893 934
                              Agency No. A209 893 935
                     ______________________________

   Before Stewart, Duncan, and Wilson, Circuit Judges.
   Per Curiam:*
         Maria Del Carmen Salmeron-Acosta and her son, Fernando De Jesus
   Salmeron-Acosta, petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’s
   (BIA) decision dismissing their appeal from the Immigration Judge’s (IJ)

         _____________________
         *
             This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.
Case: 22-60390      Document: 00516609076          Page: 2    Date Filed: 01/12/2023

                                    No. 22-60390

   denial of Maria’s application for asylum and withholding of removal.
   Fernando is a derivative of his mother’s application for asylum.
          We review the BIA’s decision and will consider the IJ’s underlying
   decision only if it impacted the BIA’s decision, as it did here. See Sharma v.
   Holder, 729 F.3d 407, 411 (5th Cir. 2013). Findings of fact, including the
   denial of asylum and withholding of removal, are reviewed under the
   substantial evidence standard. See Gonzales-Veliz v. Barr, 938 F.3d 219, 224
   (5th Cir. 2019). Conclusions of law are reviewed de novo. See Sharma, 729
   F.3d at 411.
          Substantial evidence supports the IJ’s holding that Salmeron-
   Acosta’s proposed particular social group (PSG) of “Salvadoran females
   who have been victims of rape by an older man and have suffered emotional,
   physical[,] and physiological hardships” is not cognizable because it is
   impermissibly defined by the harm. See Gonzales-Veliz, 938 F.3d at 232.
   Because Salmeron-Acosta’s failure to show a cognizable PSG is dispositive
   of her asylum and withholding of removal claims, see id. at 224, the rest of her
   issues concerning asylum and withholding of removal need not be addressed,
   see INS v. Bagamasbad, 429 U.S. 24, 25 (1976) (“As a general rule courts and
   agencies are not required to make findings on issues the decision of which is
   unnecessary to the results they reach.”). Salmeron-Acosta has abandoned
   her arguments concerning due process and prosecutorial discretion because
   she inadequately briefed them. See United States v. Scroggins, 599 F.3d 433,
   446 (5th Cir. 2010); Fed. R. App. P. 28(a)(8)(A) (requiring briefs to
   include an argument containing “appellant’s contentions and the reasons for
   them, with citations to the authorities and parts of the record on which the
   appellant relies”).
          Accordingly, the petition for review is DENIED.

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