NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 18a0409n.06 No. 17-3995 FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Aug 15, 2018 FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk DINA ENEIRA BETANCOURT-APLICANO and ) DOMINIC MONSERRATH LOPEZ- ) BETANCOURT, ) ) Petitioners, ) ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW v. ) FROM THE UNITED STATES ) BOARD OF IMMIGRATION JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS III, United States ) APPEALS Attorney General, ) ) Respondent. ) BEFORE: BOGGS, CLAY, and ROGERS, Circuit Judges. BOGGS, Circuit Judge. Two citizens of Honduras, Dina Betancourt-Aplicano and her minor daughter Dominic Lopez-Betancourt, petition for review of the BIA’s denial of their applications for asylum and withholding of removal. For the reasons set forth below, we deny the petition for review. I A. Factual Background Dina Betancourt-Aplicano is a citizen of Honduras. Beginning in January 2012, she earned a living by selling home-cooked meals door-to-door two or three times per week to her neighbors and to spectators at local soccer games. She typically traveled by bicycle or foot in the late No. 17-3995, Betancourt-Aplicano v. Sessions afternoon and returned home between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. When she began selling food, Betancourt-Aplicano was pregnant with her daughter, Dominic Lopez-Betancourt. In approximately February 2012, two men approached Betancourt-Aplicano on her way home and demanded that she give them her money. She initially refused, but one of the men brandished a knife and forcibly took money from her. During the next year-and-a-half, Betancourt- Aplicano was robbed at knifepoint or gunpoint between eight and twelve times per month, by a rotating set of two men from a group comprised of approximately ten men.1 Betancourt-Aplicano was never physically injured, but the robbers would either forcibly take her money or threaten her if she did not voluntarily turn over her money. Generally, the robbers would take only a portion of her money. In May 2012, Betancourt-Aplicano gave birth to her daughter and the robbers occasionally told Betancourt-Aplicano that they would harm her daughter if Betancourt-Aplicano refused to surrender the money. As a result, Betancourt-Aplicano enlisted the help of a relative and a friend to watch her daughter while Betancourt-Aplicano was out selling food. There is no evidence on the record to suggest that her daughter was ever physically harmed by the robbers. During the hearing before the immigration judge, Betancourt-Aplicano presented testimony from two Honduran witnesses, one male and one female, who explained that they were also robbed periodically. Betancourt-Aplicano testified that she could have recognized and identified the robbers to police. However, she chose not to contact the police because she was afraid and believed that the police would be ineffective. 1 During the proceeding in front of the immigration judge, it appears that Betancourt-Aplicano’s attorney misstated the range as “so, that’s anywhere between eight and twenty-four times a month. Is that correct?” However, Betancourt- Aplicano had testified that she sold food two or three times per week and was robbed almost every time, totaling eight to twelve robberies per month. -2- No. 17-3995, Betancourt-Aplicano v. ...
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