Case: 18-60813 Document: 00515568517 Page: 1 Date Filed: 09/17/2020 United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit FILED September 17, 2020 No. 18-60813 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk Luz Del Socorro Cerritos-Quintanilla; Wilmer Arnoldo Gomez-Cerritos, Petitioners, versus William P. Barr, U.S. Attorney General, Respondent. Petition for Review of the Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals BIA No. A206-797-134 BIA No. A206-797-135 Before Higginbotham, Elrod, and Haynes, Circuit Judges. Per Curiam:* Petitioners Luz Del Socorro Cerritos-Quintanilla and her son, Wilmer Arnoldo Gomez-Cerritos, natives and citizens of El Salvador, petition this court to review the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals, which affirmed the order of the immigration judge denying their request for asylum * Pursuant to 5th Circuit Rule 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5th Circuit Rule 47.5.4. Case: 18-60813 Document: 00515568517 Page: 2 Date Filed: 09/17/2020 No. 18-60813 and withholding of removal. Because there is not substantial evidence to compel the conclusion that Cerritos-Quintanilla’s family status was one central reason for her alleged present or future persecution, we DENY Cerritos-Quintanilla and Gomez-Cerritos’s petition for review. I. In 2014, petitioner Luz Del Socorro Cerritos-Quintanilla and her then-minor son, Wilmer Arnoldo Gomez-Cerritos, natives and citizens of El Salvador, received notices to appear issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The Department charged them with entering the United States without being admitted or paroled. They admitted the allegations and conceded the charges against them. Cerritos-Quintanilla applied for asylum and withholding of removal, and she included Gomez- Cerritos as part of her application. See 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b)(3)(A) (“A spouse or child . . . of an alien who is granted asylum under this subsection may . . . be granted the same status as the alien if accompanying . . . such alien”). In her application, Cerritos-Quintanilla alleged that she left El Salvador because the “gangs” threatened her and her son if they did not pay them money. She later clarified in briefing that she was referring to the “transnational criminal gang syndicate known as the Mara Salvatrucha,” also known as “MS-13.” Cerritos-Quintanilla testified that MS-13 told Gomez-Cerritos on two occasions that if he did not join or pay the gang, he would be killed. Cerritos- Quintanilla further testified that the gang told her on two occasions that if Gomez-Cerritos did not join the gang, she would be killed. According to Cerritos-Quintanilla, she did not report the threats to police due to fear of retaliation. Her daughter, Fatima, remains in the same town in El Salvador where Cerritos-Quintanilla previously lived. Gomez-Cerritos did not testify because his counsel and the Department stipulated that his testimony would be identical to that of Cerritos-Quintanilla. 2 Case: 18-60813 Document: 00515568517 Page: 3 Date Filed: 09/17/2020 No. 18-60813 At the hearing, Cerritos-Quintanilla’s counsel argued that the basis of her asylum and withholding of removal applications was persecution by threats ...
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