UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 18-1525 GLORIA MARIBEL AGUILAR-AVILA, Petitioner, v. WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. Argued: May 7, 2019 Decided: August 9, 2019 Before MOTZ, KING, and THACKER, Circuit Judges. Petition for review granted and remanded for further proceedings by unpublished per curiam opinion. ARGUED: Japheth Nthautha Matemu, MATEMU LAW OFFICE, P.C., Raleigh, North Carolina, for Petitioner. Julia J. Tyler, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. ON BRIEF: Joseph H. Hunt, Assistant Attorney General, Shelley R. Goad, Assistant Director, Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. PER CURIAM: Gloria Maribel Aguilar-Avila (“Petitioner”), a native and citizen of Honduras, illegally entered the United States in December 2015. In February 2016, the Government initiated removal proceedings against Petitioner. Petitioner conceded removability but alleged that she was fleeing an abusive relationship. She alleged that her former partner beat her, leaving her with bruises and scars, and threatened to kill her and her family members. She also alleged that her abuser was connected to gang activity in Honduras and Mexico. On that basis, Petitioner sought relief from removal. The Immigration Judge (“IJ”) denied Petitioner’s application for relief, and the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirmed that denial. Petitioner now seeks review of the final order of the BIA. For the reasons that follow, we grant her petition for review and remand the case to the BIA for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. I. A. Petitioner met Elvis Omar Reyes Lopez 17 years ago. Over the course of their relationship, the pair lived in Lopez’s mother’s home in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, with their two daughters. 1 According to Petitioner, Lopez was abusive. Petitioner testified that Lopez used cocaine and would succumb to fits of anger and rage. She testified that he verbally abused her (called her “[u]gly things, lots of ugly things” including referring to her as his “property”), beat her (including, at times, in front of her children), hit her in 1 Petitioner’s daughters were born in 2008 and 2004, respectively. 2 the head with a lock (resulting in a hematoma), struck her in the jaw until she lost all of her back teeth (“[h]e would always grab me by the jaw . . . [and] hit me with whatever he had”), grabbed her genitals without consent (“to see if I had come from being with someone”), and stuck a machete into her ribs, threatening to kill her and her family members. A.R. 77, 80. 2 Petitioner further testified that she believed that Lopez was associated with the Mara 18 gang 3 and also had connections to Zetas 4 in Mexico. She testified that Lopez threatened to use his gang affiliations against her if she ever attempted to leave him. Nonetheless, Petitioner left Lopez in 2011. That year, Petitioner’s mother passed away, and ...
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