USCA11 Case: 20-11749 Date Filed: 03/03/2021 Page: 1 of 10 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 20-11749 Non-Argument Calendar ________________________ Agency No. A209-890-801 CIBA NOHELY DOMINGUEZ-SALMERSON, DIEGO IVAN MORALES-DOMINGUEZ, Petitioners, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ________________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals ________________________ (March 3, 2021) Before WILSON, JILL PRYOR, and LUCK, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: USCA11 Case: 20-11749 Date Filed: 03/03/2021 Page: 2 of 10 Cibia Dominguez-Salmerson seeks review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) final order affirming the immigration judge’s (IJ) denial of her application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT).1 Because we write for the parties, we assume familiarity of the facts and set out only those necessary for the resolution of this appeal. Dominguez-Salmerson and her son are natives and citizens of Honduras. In Honduras, Dominguez- Salmerson lived with her domestic partner Marvin, Marvin’s aunt Ida, and Ida’s partner Ephraim Hernandez-Morales. Dominguez-Salmerson claims that she was sexually harassed, threatened, and stalked by Hernandez-Morales and that Hernandez-Morales’s family members, who were in a gang, threatened her. She says that she left Honduras to flee from Hernandez-Morales. Dominguez-Salmerson and her son entered the United States at or near Hidalgo, Texas in November 2016. In December 2016, the Department of Homeland Security served them with a notice to appear, charging them with being removable under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) § 212(a)(7)(A)(i)(I), 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(7)(A)(i)(I), as being persons not in possession of valid entry 1 Dominguez-Salmerson’s petition for review is filed on behalf of herself and Diego Morales- Dominguez, her minor child and derivate asylum applicant. 2 USCA11 Case: 20-11749 Date Filed: 03/03/2021 Page: 3 of 10 documents at the time of admission. Dominguez-Salmerson applied for asylum and withholding of removal under the INA and CAT. She contended that she qualified as a refugee under the INA because she belonged to a particular social group. She described the social group as “a family relative of those sexually molested by gangs or gang members family, who resist sexual assault by the same gang.” The IJ found that Dominguez-Salmerson did not satisfy her burden of proof for asylum or withholding removal, and that her CAT claim also failed. She appealed to the BIA, arguing that she was eligible for asylum or withholding. The BIA dismissed Dominguez-Salmerson’s appeal, relying on Matter of A-B-, 27 I. & N. Dec. 316 (A.G. 2018), to conclude that she failed to establish membership in a cognizable particular social group because her proposed social group was circularly defined, and was not distinct or particular.2 It also found that she had not established that a central reason Hernandez-Morales had the inclination to harm her was on account of her membership in the putative social group, as is required by law. This appeal followed. First, Dominguez-Salmerson argues that Matter of A-B- was …
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