FILED NOT FOR PUBLICATION NOV 25 2019 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT BRAYAN JOSUE ANDRADE MENDEZ, No. 17-72167 AKA Mia Elizabeth Andrade Mendez, Agency No. A209-279-698 Petitioner, v. MEMORANDUM* WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals Argued and Submitted October 24, 2019 Portland, Oregon Before: FARRIS, BEA, and CHRISTEN, Circuit Judges. Petitioner Brayan Josue Andrade Mendez (“Petitioner”), a native and citizen of Honduras, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) dismissal of her appeal from an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) final order of removal. Petitioner argues the BIA erred in denying her applications for asylum, * This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). Mendez claims to fear harm because of her status as a transgender woman. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252. We deny Mendez’s petition for review. Substantial evidence supports the BIA’s affirmance of the IJ’s denial of relief. An asylum applicant must show he or she is unable or unwilling to return to his or her home country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of a protected ground, 8 U.S.C. §§ 1158(b)(1)(A), (B)(i); 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42)(A), and that the persecutor is the government or persons or groups the government is unable or unwilling to control, see Avetova-Elisseva v. INS, 213 F.3d 1192, 1196 (9th Cir. 2000). Petitioner describes a past harm that rises to the level of persecution: sexual abuse during early childhood by a family friend. The abuse occurred many years before Petitioner identified or expressed her transgender identity, so this persecution lacks nexus to a protected ground. Further, the abuser was later caught, convicted, and jailed for similar abuse of a young boy, so Petitioner has not shown the government was unwilling or unable or to control the abuser. Afriyie v. Holder, 613 F.3d 924, 931 (9th Cir. 2010) (the government's response “may provide powerful evidence” of its “willingness or ability to protect the requestor”), 2 overruled in part on other grounds by Bringas-Rodriguez v. Sessions, 850 F.3d 1051 (9th Cir. 2017) (en banc). Petitioner describes instances of discrimination that do not rise to the level of persecution. Petitioner testified her mother threw her out of the family home at age 17 because of her transgender identity and broke her tooth, that she was fired from her job in a supermarket, and she was not permitted to register for an educational course. Petitioner testified she was shoved against a wall and tasered by police while resisting a search of herself and other sex workers she believed to be unlawful, and that police hit her with a stick and pulled and dislocated her arm while breaking up an LGBTI rights march Petitioner helped organize. These instances are discrimination or harassment, ...
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