NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION File Name: 18a0609n.06 No. 18-3108 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED Dec 04, 2018 DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk CLAUDIA MORAN-PEREZ, ) ) Petitioner, ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW ) OF A FINAL ORDER OF THE v. ) BOARD OF IMMIGRATION ) APPEALS MATTHEW G. WHITAKER, Acting ) Attorney General, ) ) OPINION Respondent. ) ) Before: MOORE, CLAY, DONALD, Circuit Judges. BERNICE BOUIE DONALD, Circuit Judge. Petitioner Claudia Arely Moran- Perez (“Moran-Perez”) and her daughter Claudia Nicole Linares-Moran,1 native citizens of El Salvador, seek review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) order denying their motion to reopen removal proceedings and its finding that Moran-Perez failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits of their asylum claim. Because the BIA did not abuse its discretion, we DENY Moran-Perez’s petition for review. I. BACKGROUND Moran-Perez and her daughter entered the United States without inspection on or around September 12, 2012. On September 21, 2012, the Department of Homeland Security issued Notices to Appear (“NTA”) for Moran-Perez, charging her with removability pursuant to 8 U.S.C. 1 Moran-Perez’s application was consolidated with her daughter’s petition. We will refer to them jointly as “Moran- Perez.” No. 18-3108, Moran-Perez, et al, v. Whitaker § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i) and initiating removal proceedings. Moran-Perez admitted the factual allegations in her NTA, and conceded removability as charged, but sought relief from removal in the form of asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). On September 12, 2013, Moran-Perez filed an asylum application before the Immigration Judge (“IJ”), claiming harm or fear of harm on account of Moran-Perez’s political opinion and membership in a particular social group that opposed gangs and cartels and their ties to local government. At the hearing on May 19, 2014, Moran-Perez testified that: she is a supporter of the ARENA party in El Salvador and that she fears retaliation from the FMLN party, of which the then-recently-elected Communist President was a member; that gang members extorted money from her because she was opening a hair salon business from her home; and that she and her daughter received death threats after she refused to pay them and reported the extortion to the police. Moran-Perez further testified that after receiving those threats, she left home to stay at her mother’s house, where she and her daughter continued to receive threats and where threats were also made against her parents’ lives. Moran-Perez and her daughter fled to the United States. On May 19, 2015, the IJ denied Moran-Perez’s application for asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT protection. The IJ determined that Moran-Perez was not credible, reasoning, among other things, that Moran-Perez’s failure to inform the Border Patrol agent that she was fleeing persecution “[e]ffectively impeaches [her] testimony that she came to the United States to 2 No. 18-3108, Moran-Perez, et al, v. Whitaker flee from gangs in El Salvador.”2 Alternatively, the IJ found that Moran-Perez failed to demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution ...
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