NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS JAN 28 2021 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT YANET ELIZABETH VASQUEZ-DE No. 18-72351 MUNOZ, AKA Yanet Elizabeth Vasquez- Belloso, Agency No. A088-349-877 Petitioner, MEMORANDUM* v. ROBERT M. WILKINSON, Acting Attorney General, Respondent. ALEX ENRIQUE MUNOZ-VASQUEZ; No. 18-72353 ANGIE ELIZABETH MUNOZ-VASQUEZ, Agency Nos. A208-268-517 Petitioners, A208-268-518 v. ROBERT M. WILKINSON, Acting Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals Argued and Submitted January 12, 2021 * This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. San Francisco, California Before: BYBEE and R. NELSON, Circuit Judges, and WHALEY,** District Judge. Yanet Elizabeth Vasquez-De Munoz (“Ms. Vasquez-De Munoz”) and her minor children, Alex Enrique Munoz Vasquez (“Alex”) and Angie Elizabeth Munoz Vasquez (“Angie”), are natives and citizens of El Salvador. The Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) dismissed their appeal from an immigration judge’s decision denying Ms. Vasquez-De Munoz’s application for withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”), and denying Alex and Angie’s applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under CAT. Our jurisdiction is governed by 8 U.S.C. § 1252. We review the agency’s factual findings for substantial evidence. Zehatye v. Gonzales, 453 F.3d 1182, 1184-85 (9th Cir. 2006). We deny the petitions for review. To be eligible for asylum, a petitioner must establish “persecution or a well- founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42)(A). A petitioner is entitled to withholding of removal if, upon return to the petitioner’s native country, there is a clear probability the petitioner will be subject to ** The Honorable Robert H. Whaley, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Washington, sitting by designation. 2 persecution on account of one of the same five protected grounds. See 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3)(A); 8 C.F.R. § 1208.16(b), (b)(2). In order to establish persecution on account of a protected ground, “the persecutor’s motive is critical and the applicant must come forward with some evidence of [motive], direct or circumstantial.” Garcia-Milian v. Holder, 755 F.3d 1026, 1031 (9th Cir. 2014) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Petitioners did not establish the requisite nexus between their harm and membership in the particular social group “members of the Vasquez and Munoz families.” Rather than membership in a family social group, the record supports the determination that Ms. Vasquez De-Munoz was extorted by gangs because she was a business owner. See Ayala v. Holder, 640 F.3d 1095, 1097 (9th Cir. 2011) (even if membership in a particular social group is established, a petitioner must still show that “any persecution was or will be on account of [her] membership in such group.”); Zetino v. Holder, 622 F.3d 1007, 1016 (9th Cir. 2010) (a petitioner’s “desire to be free from harassment by criminals motivated by theft or random violence by ...
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