Court Opinion

ID: 9395935
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-05-18 21:00:31.144985+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:19:12.810449
License: Public Domain

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                                            UNPUBLISHED

                               UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                                   FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                                              No. 22-1387

        DEVORA ROCSANA CORDOVA-MONSON DEMARTINEZ; BRANDONLEE
        OSEAS MARTINEZ-CORDOVA,

                            Petitioners,

                     v.

        MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General,

                            Respondent.

        On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals.

        Submitted: February 17, 2023                                      Decided: May 17, 2023

        Before AGEE and THACKER, Circuit Judges, and FLOYD, Senior Circuit Judge.

        Petition granted; vacated and remanded by unpublished per curiam opinion. Judge Agee
        dissents.

        ON BRIEF: Nash Fayad, FAYAD LAW, P.C., Richmond, Virginia, for Petitioners.
        Brian M. Boynton, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Bernard A. Joseph,
        Senior Litigation Counsel, Rodolfo D. Saenz, Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil
        Division, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for
        Respondent.

        Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
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        PER CURIAM:

               Devora Rocsana Cordova-Monson Demartinez (Cordova-Monson) and her son,

        natives and citizens of Guatemala, petition for review of an order of the Board of

        Immigration Appeals (Board) dismissing their appeal from the Immigration Judge’s denial

        of Cordova-Monson’s applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection

        under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). For the reasons discussed below, we grant

        the petition for review, vacate the Board’s order, and remand for further proceedings.

               Cordova-Monson testified that she lived in this country illegally from 2003 to 2010.

        During that time, her family in Guatemala experienced two incidents of extortion with gang

        members. In 2008, her father was kidnapped, beaten, and held for ransom, which was paid

        by one of her brothers. In 2009, a man approached Cordova-Monson’s mother and asked

        for money in exchange for not kidnapping Cordova-Monson’s other son, which she paid.

        After Cordova-Monson returned to Guatemala in 2010, she experienced three incidents

        involving extortion.     In June 2010, a man called her on the phone, identified

        Cordova-Monson as “Devora,” and asked for money, telling her they were going to kidnap

        her family, the ones she loved the most. Cordova-Monson paid this demand. In 2011, two

        masked men approached Cordova-Monson outside a restaurant, held her at knifepoint, and

        took 500 Quetzales from her purse which she had recently withdrawn from the bank. She

        was too afraid to report this incident to police, fearing danger to her family because it was

        known that gang members went after people who reported crimes to law enforcement. In

        November 2015, gang members called Cordova-Monson on the phone and demanded

        25,000 Quetzales, threatening to kill her if she failed to pay. She refused. The next day,

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        the same person called and asked about the money, reminding her that she had a “big and

        pretty family.” She refused again and the person again threatened to kill her. Cordova-

        Monson told the caller she was tired of them because they’d already kidnapped her father

        and she wanted to be free from them, ultimately asking for more time to pay but intending

        to leave the country. She left Guatemala in December 2015. In June 2016, Cordova-

        Monson’s son, who had previously been extorted and threatened with death, was shot at on

        his way home from school, the four bullets hitting a car instead of him.

               Cordova-Monson disputes the Board’s finding, dispositive of her asylum and

        withholding of removal claims, that she failed to demonstrate the requisite nexus between

        the harm she experienced and fears and a protected ground, in this case her membership in

        the Cordova family and anti-gang political opinion.

               A protected ground advanced by the applicant “must be at least one central reason

        for the feared persecution but need not be the only reason.” Oliva v. Lynch, 807 F.3d 53,

        59 (4th Cir. 2015) (internal quotation marks omitted). As we recently emphasized, “the

        protected ground need not be the central reason or even a dominant central reason for the

        applicant’s persecution. Rather, the applicant must demonstrate that their protected status

        was or would be more than an incidental, tangential, superficial, or subordinate reason for

        their persecution.” Perez Vasquez v. Garland, 4 F.4th 213, 221 (4th Cir. 2021) (citation

        and internal quotation marks omitted); see also Arita-Deras v. Wilkinson, 990 F.3d 350,

        360 (4th Cir. 2021) (same) (concluding that applicant was targeted on account of her

        husband’s family because the gang threatened to kill her if her husband did not return to

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        Honduras). “[P]ersecution may be on account of multiple central reasons or intertwined

        central reasons.” Oliva, 807 F.3d at 60.

               To establish nexus to a family-based social group, the applicant is “required to

        demonstrate that the alleged persecution he experienced was on account of his membership

        in his nuclear family, which means his membership in his family had to be at least one

        central reason for the persecution.” Portillo Flores v. Garland, 3 F.4th 615, 631 (4th Cir.

        2021) (en banc) (internal quotation marks omitted). Significant to the nexus analysis is

        whether the applicant can show that membership in the advanced group is “why she, and

        not another person,” was threatened with persecution. Hernandez-Avalos v. Lynch, 784

        F.3d 944, 950 (4th Cir. 2015). “[T]he relevant analysis is not whether the applicant’s

        family was persecuted because of a protected ground, but rather whether the applicant

        himself was persecuted because of a protected ground.” Hernandez-Cartagena v. Barr,

        977 F.3d 316, 320 (4th Cir. 2020); see Madrid-Montoya v. Garland, 52 F.4th 175, 181 (4th

        Cir. 2022).

               As the Supreme Court has explained, an applicant is not required to provide direct

        proof of the persecutor’s motive, but, because motive is “critical,” the applicant “must

        provide some evidence of it, direct or circumstantial.” INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478,

        483 (1992). Whether the applicant is seeking asylum or withholding of removal, she must

        demonstrate “a nexus between threatened persecution and a protected status.”

        Salgado-Sosa v. Sessions, 882 F.3d 451, 456-57 (4th Cir. 2018).

               “Whether a person’s persecution shares a nexus with his alleged protected ground

        is a question of fact entitled to deference and reviewed for clear error.” Cortez-Mendez v.

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        Whitaker, 912 F.3d 205, 209 (4th Cir. 2019); see also Perez Vasquez, 4 F.4th at 221 (noting

        that persecutor’s motivation is a “classic factual question” (internal quotation marks

        omitted)). Our review of the Board’s “determination of this factual question is limited to

        considering whether [the Board’s] conclusion is supported by reasonable, substantial, and

        probative evidence.” Cortez-Mendez, 912 F.3d at 209 (internal quotation marks omitted);

        see also Cruz v. Sessions, 853 F.3d 122, 128 (4th Cir. 2017) (same).

               Upon review, we find that the Board’s conclusion that Cordova-Monson failed to

        establish the requisite nexus to a protected ground is not supported by substantial evidence.

        The record reflects that Cordova-Monson’s membership in the Cordova family was one

        central reason why she was targeted by gangs, as evidenced by them calling her by her first

        name, targeting her various family members, threatening to kidnap her other son, and

        referencing her “big and pretty” family when extorting and threatening her. These facts

        demonstrate that Cordova-Monson’s family membership was not a tangential, subordinate,

        incidental or superficial reason for her persecution; rather, they show that she was targeted

        because she was a Cordova family member. Cordova-Monson, and other members of the

        Cordova family, had paid up before and, the gangs were betting, would do so again.

               Similarly, the facts call into question the Board’s finding that Cordova-Monson

        failed to qualify for CAT protection. See 8 C.F.R. § 1208.16(c)(2) (2022). The Board held

        that Cordova-Monson fears private actors but failed to show that she, individually, is more

        likely than not to suffer torture by, or at the instigation of, or with the consent or

        acquiescence of, a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. We agree

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        with Cordova-Monson that a more detailed analysis of her CAT claim is warranted. See 8

        C.F.R. § 1208.18(a) (2022).

               Accordingly, we grant the petition for review, vacate the Board’s order, and remand

        for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. We dispense with oral argument

        because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before this

        court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

                                                                          PETITION GRANTED;
                                                                     VACATED AND REMANDED

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        AGEE, Circuit Judge, dissenting:

               I would deny the petition for review. Substantial evidence supports the denial of

        asylum and withholding of removal because Cordova-Monson failed to establish the

        requisite nexus to a protected ground. Likewise, she did not meet her burden to qualify for

        CAT protection.

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