United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 17-1414 ___________________________ Lidia Ramirez lllllllllllllllllllllPetitioner v. Jefferson B. Sessions, III, Attorney General of the United States lllllllllllllllllllllRespondent ___________________________ No. 17-2662 ___________________________ Lidia Ramirez lllllllllllllllllllllPetitioner v. Jefferson B. Sessions, III, Attorney General of the United States lllllllllllllllllllllRespondent ____________ Petitions for Review of Orders of the Board of Immigration Appeals ____________ Submitted: April 11, 2018 Filed: August 29, 2018 ____________ Before BENTON, MELLOY, and GRASZ, Circuit Judges. ____________ GRASZ, Circuit Judge. Lidia Ramirez, a native and citizen of Guatemala, seeks review of a final order of removal issued by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“Board”). The Board affirmed an immigration judge’s (“IJ’s”) denial of her application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). Ramirez also seeks review of a separate order of the Board denying her motion to reconsider or reopen. For the reasons set forth below, we deny both of Ramirez’s petitions for review. I. BACKGROUND The Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) detained Ramirez in July 2014 after she illegally entered the United States. When Ramirez expressed an intent to apply for asylum, DHS referred her to an asylum officer for a credible fear interview. Ramirez told the asylum officer she feared a neighbor would kill her if she returned to Guatemala. Specifically, she said a man who lived near her in Guatemala frequently asked her to have sex, and she refused because she was married. In addition, she said she reported this neighbor to the police after he attempted to rape a local young woman, but the police did not arrest him. Ramirez believes he bribed the police. Ramirez said this same neighbor later sent two other men to confront her at knifepoint, demanding money and threatening to kill her. Ramirez told the asylum officer if she returned to Guatemala, her neighbor would kill her because she both refused his advances and reported him to the police. She said she could not move elsewhere in Guatemala because she had nowhere else to go, and she believed the police would not help her. -2- The asylum officer concluded Ramirez had a credible fear of “torture” and referred her case to an IJ for a removal proceeding under 8 U.S.C. § 1229a. DHS then served her with a Notice to Appear, charging her with removability under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(7)(A)(i)(I), which provides that immigrants are inadmissible if they do not possess a valid entry document when seeking admission. After a series of continuances, her final hearing took place in March 2016 in Kansas City, Missouri. Ramirez submitted her asylum application (completed with the help of an attorney) and represented herself pro se. A new IJ first asked an interpreter to read Ramirez’s entire asylum application back to her in Spanish. The IJ then asked if she understood what was read and if it was true and correct. Ramirez answered in the affirmative. The IJ also asked if everything in her credible fear interview, and in ...
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