NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 19a0213n.06 No. 18-3841 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED KARLA ROXANA GAVIDIA-ESCOBAR, ) Apr 25, 2019 ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk Petitioner, ) ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW v. ) FROM THE UNITED STATES ) BOARD OF IMMIGRATION WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General, ) APPEALS ) Respondent. ) ) BEFORE: DAUGHTREY, COOK, and GRIFFIN, Circuit Judges. GRIFFIN, Circuit Judge. Karla Roxana Gavidia-Escobar, a native and citizen of El Salvador, petitions this court for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) order dismissing her appeal from the denial of her applications for asylum and withholding of removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). In addition to the merits of these claims, she faults the Immigration Judge (IJ) for not granting her a continuance to have certain documents translated into English. For the reasons that follow, we deny her petition. I. Along with her minor son, petitioner entered the United States without inspection in July 2015. After being placed in removal proceedings, she conceded removability and applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT protection, asserting past persecution and fear of future persecution if removed to El Salvador. Prior to her hearing before an IJ, her counsel sought a No. 18-3841, Gavidia-Escobar v. Barr continuance to get corroborating documents translated into English for use at the hearing. The IJ found petitioner’s request “reasonable,” but denied the motion. He reasoned there was no need to continue the hearing because he was just going to “accept [petitioner]’s version of events as true,” and thus there was no prejudice to petitioner. With this procedural issue resolved, the hearing turned to petitioner’s testimony in support of her claims. She focused solely on deplorable conduct by the MS-13 gang as a basis for her reason for leaving El Salvador for the United States. Beginning in 2006, gang members tried to get petitioner’s brother, a member of the Armed Forces of El Salvador, to steal weapons for them. He refused, leading to threats to “take away his family.” Those threats materialized in 2009, when gang members killed the father of petitioner’s son (as witnessed by petitioner’s brother). Police arrested a gang member for the murder, and petitioner’s brother testified against the gang member. However, petitioner’s brother stopped cooperating after receiving additional threats from the gang, and the gang member was released. Petitioner’s brother continued to rebuff the gang members’ requests for him to steal weapons, so gang members killed their mother in 2011. A gang member responsible for her mother’s murder was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Gang members then demanded petitioner’s brother leave the military because he was the only military member in their neighborhood, which he did in 2012. He eventually immigrated to Guatemala, and then the United States. With petitioner’s brother out of the country, gang members turned their threats to petitioner’s son, Carlos. They wanted to make sure that ...
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