NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 20a0432n.06 Case No. 19-3829 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED Jul 24, 2020 ERASMO MATEO-VASQUEZ, et al., ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk ) Petitioners, ) ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW v. ) FROM THE UNITED STATES ) BOARD OF IMMIGRATION WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General, ) APPEALS ) Respondent. ) BEFORE: GIBBONS, LARSEN, and NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judges. NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judge. Erasmo Mateo-Vasquez, Maira Mateo-Vasquez, two minor children, and Honoria Vasquez-Perez (the Petitioners), all native citizens of Guatemala, challenge the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) decision that they are not eligible for asylum, withholding of removal, or protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). They rest these claims on fears of gang violence if they return to Guatemala. But securing asylum under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) requires proof that the Petitioners face persecution stemming from membership in a protected social group. And the Petitioners present no evidence suggesting that their family status motivated the alleged persecution. We also find that the Petitioners have neither established that they will face torture upon returning to Guatemala nor shown that the Guatemalan government is unable or unwilling to protect them from future gang violence. So we DENY the petition for review. Case No. 19-3829, Mateo-Vasquez v. Barr I. The Petitioners are a mother and her four children, all native Guatemalan citizens, who left their home country after an unnamed local gang tormented them. Erasmo Mateo-Vasquez first encountered the group in 2013 when he was eighteen years old. A handful of men belonging to an unspecified gang approached him with an offer to sell drugs for them and to participate in other organized criminal activities. Erasmo believed that the gang targeted him because he lacked financial resources. When Erasmo declined the offer, the men attacked him. Erasmo then told his parents, who filed a police report. Sometime later, gang members again approached Erasmo and when he fled, the men proclaimed that he was “not free.” (AR 203.) These refusals led to escalating harassment and abuse. First, the gang beat Erasmo and broke his nose. Then they started orally threatening Erasmo at his home, yelling for him to come out. Following that, Erasmo began receiving threatening phone calls as part of the gang’s recruitment efforts. In 2014, Erasmo fled Guatemala for the United States after enduring physical and emotional abuse from the gang. These events left Erasmo so distraught that he threatened to commit suicide if returned to Guatemala. He now believes that the gang would track down and kill him should he relocate to Guatemala. Erasmo was not the only member of his family that the gang targeted. Maira Mateo- Vasquez, Erasmo’s sister, caught the gang’s attention in September 2013 when she followed Erasmo to a bar where she overheard gang members threatening him. Sensing Erasmo faced a dangerous situation, Maira tried to intervene. The gang at first attacked her, but then one member remarked that she could be valuable as a prostitute. ...
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