Granados Arias v. Garland

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Immigration
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 22-2148
Decision Date: 
May 31, 2023
Federal District: 
Petition for Review, Order of Board of Immigration Appeals
Holding: 
Petition denied

Record contained sufficient evidence to support IJ’s order denying petitioner’s applications for asylum, withholding of removal and protection under Convention Against Torture, based on petitioner’s claim that she experienced persecution in home country of El Salvador when neighborhood gang members extorted her business on one occasion on account of her membership in social group of female business owners. Petitioner failed to establish asylum claim, where evidence failed to establish connection/nexus between alleged persecution and petitioner’s membership in recognized social group. In this regard, record showed that: (1) outside of one episode of gang threat to petitioner’s business, petitioner’s mother and sister who lived five houses from petitioner’s business did not experience any subsequent threats from gang; and (2) record supported IJ’s finding that petitioner’s general wealth, as opposed to her membership in social group of female business owners, motivated extortion, where evidence showed that all business owners in El Salvador were regularly extorted. Moreover, general crime and violence conditions in El Salvador were insufficient to support instant asylum claim. Also, petitioner’s failure to establish nexus to her social group also doomed her withholding of removal claim, and petitioner failed to show that she experienced torture or would experience torture if forced to return to El Salvador.