UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 20-1893 SANDRA JANNETH MARTINEZ-GUERRERO; K.M.G.M., Petitioners, v. MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. Submitted: June 11, 2021 Decided: July 2, 2021 Before THACKER, HARRIS, and QUATTLEBAUM, Circuit Judges. Petition for review granted and remand awarded by unpublished per curiam opinion. Judge Quattlebaum dissents. Suzanne L. Capriotti, THE LAW OFFICES OF SUZANNE L. CAPRIOTTI, LLC, Gaithersburg, Maryland, for Petitioners. Jeffrey Bossert Clark, Assistant Attorney General, Mary Jane Candaux, Assistant Director, Dawn S. Conrad, Senior Litigation Counsel, 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 Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. PER CURIAM: Sandra Janneth Martinez-Guerrero (Martinez) and her minor daughter, K.M.G.M. (collectively, “Petitioners”), both natives and citizens of El Salvador, petition for review of the July 20, 2020, decision and order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (the Board) dismissing their appeal from the Immigration Judge’s July 23, 2018, oral decision denying their applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). The Board affirmed the denial of Petitioners’ asylum applications after concluding that death threats made to Petitioners did not constitute past persecution. The Board also affirmed the denial of Petitioners’ applications for withholding of removal and CAT protection on similar reasoning. For the reasons explained below, we grant the petition for review and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) renders deportable “[a]n alien who enters the United States without required documentation, and who remains present here.” Xing Yang Yang v. Holder, 770 F.3d 294, 296 (4th Cir. 2014) (citing 8 U.S.C. §§ 1182(a)(7)(A)(i), 1227(a)(1)(A)). The INA, however, creates “several avenues by which such an alien may seek relief from deportation and lawfully remain in the United States.” Id. Relevant here, the INA authorizes the Attorney General to confer asylum on a person who is a “refugee” and thereby prevent her deportation. See 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b)(1)(A). A “refugee” is a person unwilling or unable to return to her native country “because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, 2 nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” Id. § 1101(a)(42)(A). An asylum applicant can establish refugee status and qualify for asylum by demonstrating past persecution in her native country on account of a protected ground or a well-founded fear of persecution in that country on such a ground. See 8 C.F.R. § 1208.13(b) (2020). If an asylum applicant establishes past persecution, she has the benefit of a rebuttable presumption of a well-founded fear of future persecution. Djadjou v. Holder, 662 F.3d 265, 272 (4th Cir. 2011). In assessing a decision of the Board affirming the denial of an asylum application, we review “legal questions de novo and factual findings for substantial evidence, treating the agency’s factual findings as conclusive unless any reasonable adjudicator could …
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