UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 17-2067 MARCIO LOPEZ-ORELLANA, Petitioner, v. MATTHEW G. WHITAKER, Acting Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. Argued: September 25, 2018 Decided: December 19, 2018 Before KING and KEENAN, Circuit Judges, and John A. GIBNEY, Jr., United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, sitting by designation. Petition for review granted in part, denied in part; vacated and remanded by unpublished opinion. Judge Gibney wrote the opinion, in which Judge King and Judge Keenan joined. ARGUED: Jennifer Lynn Cervantes, CERVANTES & CERVANTES, PLC, Fredericksburg, Virginia, for Petitioner. Robert Michael Stalzer, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. ON BRIEF: Juan V. Cervantes, CERVANTES & CERVANTES, PLC, Fredericksburg, Virginia, for Petitioner. Chad A. Readler, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Stephen J. Flynn, 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 Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. 2 GIBNEY, District Judge: Marcio Lopez-Orellana faced multiple targeted death threats at the hands of a rival family in his native Honduras. Yet the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirmed an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) finding that he did not suffer past persecution in Honduras and thus did not qualify for asylum. Because we hold that Lopez did suffer past persecution, the IJ and BIA should have afforded him the rebuttable presumption of a well- founded fear of future persecution. For the reasons that follow, we grant in part and deny in part the petition for review, vacate the BIA’s order, and remand to the BIA for further proceedings. I. In 2005, a land dispute arose between Lopez’s uncle, Martar Orellana, and Martar’s neighbors, the Hernandez family. The dispute escalated, and the Hernandez family attacked Martar with a machete, amputating both of his arms. In 2007, the Hernandez family shot and killed Lopez’s father because he had been investigating the attack on Martar. In early 2012, Jorge and Felipe Hernandez, while armed, threatened to kill Lopez. Jorge and Felipe claimed that Lopez wanted to “take vengeance” against them for his father’s death. J.A. 137. Lopez tried to convince Jorge and Felipe that he did not want to avenge his father’s death, but they pursued him nonetheless. Lopez escaped uninjured. Shortly thereafter, other members of the Hernandez family fired shots at Lopez. He injured his arm while trying to escape. 3 Feeling unsafe in his hometown, Lopez moved to San Marcos, Honduras. Because people from Lopez’s hometown often visited San Marcos, Lopez still worried that the Hernandez family would find him. He then moved to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, where two of his sisters lived. After experiencing two unrelated assaults in San Pedro Sula, Lopez traveled to the United States in July, 2012. After arriving in the United States, Lopez continued to receive reports of violence that the Hernandez family perpetrated against his family. For example, the Hernandez family fired shots at his ...
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