UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 19-2327 ELVIS GEOVANY CARDENAS-MARTINEZ, Petitioner, v. MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. Argued: May 4, 2021 Decided: July 26, 2021 Before WILKINSON, WYNN, and HARRIS, Circuit Judges. Petition for review denied by unpublished opinion. Judge Harris wrote the opinion, in which Judge Wilkinson and Judge Wynn joined. Judge Wilkinson wrote a separate concurring opinion. ARGUED: Hyok Frank Chang, WILEY REIN, LLP, Washington, D.C., for Petitioner. Sara J. Bayram, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. ON BRIEF: Jenny Kim, Melody Vidmar, CAPITAL AREA IMMIGRANTS’ RIGHTS (CAIR) COALITION, Washington, D.C.; Madeline J. Cohen, Holly J. Wilson, Spencer C. Brooks, WILEY REIN, LLP, Washington, D.C., for Petitioner. Joseph H. Hunt, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, W. Manning Evans, Senior Litigation Counsel, Office of Immigration Litigation, Christopher A. Bates, Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. 2 PAMELA HARRIS, Circuit Judge: Petitioner Elvis Geovany Cardenas-Martinez was denied asylum after a hearing before an immigration judge, and the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) dismissed his appeal. This case arises from Cardenas-Martinez’s subsequent motion to reopen, filed with the BIA, based primarily on what he claims was ineffective assistance of counsel before the immigration judge. The BIA denied that motion, and Cardenas-Martinez now petitions our court for review. For the reasons below, we deny the petition. I. A. Elvis Geovany Cardenas-Martinez, a native of Honduras, entered the United States without authorization in May of 2014, when he was 15 years old. Cardenas-Martinez came to this country to join his mother, Gladis Martinez, who had been in the United States since he was nine months old, and had left her son in the care of his maternal grandmother and then an aunt. When Cardenas-Martinez arrived, he was designated an unaccompanied minor, given a Notice to Appear for removal proceedings, and released into the custody of his mother. Shortly before leaving Honduras in 2014, Cardenas-Martinez began having recurring seizures, which were diagnosed as epilepsy. Since arriving in the United States, Cardenas-Martinez also has been diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety, and “major neurocognitive defects,” especially with respect to his “impulse inhibition, attention, and memory.” A.R. 1097–98. His doctors have raised the possibility of autism, as well. 3 In October of 2015, Cardenas-Martinez – then represented by attorney Joanna Gaughan – applied for asylum. Asylum may be granted to “‘refugees’ who are unable or unwilling to return to their native country ‘because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of . . . membership in a particular social group.’” Canales-Rivera v. Barr, 948 F.3d 649, 653–54 (4th Cir. 2020) (quoting 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42)(A)). Cardenas-Martinez asserted that he had been beaten in Honduras because of his “disorder or disability” – an apparent reference to his epilepsy – and that he feared …
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