Maria Juan Antonio v. William P. Barr


RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION Pursuant to Sixth Circuit I.O.P. 32.1(b) File Name: 20a0156p.06 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT MARIA MAGDALENA JUAN ANTONIO, ┐ Petitioner, │ │ > No. 18-3500 v. │ │ │ WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General, │ Respondent. │ ┘ On Petition for Review from the Board of Immigration Appeals; No. A 206 468 574. Decided and Filed: May 19, 2020 Before: COLE, Chief Judge; BOGGS and GIBBONS, Circuit Judges. _________________ COUNSEL ON BRIEF: Margaret Wong, MARGARET WONG & ASSOCIATES LLC, Cleveland, Ohio, for Petitioner. Genevieve M. Kelly, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. GIBBONS, J. delivered the opinion of the court in which COLE, C.J., joined. BOGGS, J. (pp. 24–25), delivered a separate opinion concurring in the judgment. No. 18-3500 Juan Antonio v. Barr Page 2 _________________ OPINION _________________ JULIA SMITH GIBBONS, Circuit Judge. Maria Magdalena Juan Antonio,1 a native and citizen of Guatemala, appeals from the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (the “Board”) denial of her application for asylum and withholding of removal. In its denial, the Board found that Maria articulated a cognizable particular social group and that the harm she suffered rose to the level of past persecution. It then concluded, however, that the government effectively rebutted her well- founded fear of future persecution by showing changed circumstances: that she was no longer part of her articulated social group and that she could reasonably relocate within Guatemala. On appeal, Maria argues that the Board’s conclusion was not supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole. We agree with Maria. Therefore, we grant the petition for review, vacate the Board’s decision, and remand for reconsideration consistent with this opinion. I. Maria is a 33-year-old native and citizen of Guatemala. She was born in Aldea Village in Quetzal Huehuetenango. She is a member of a Mayan indigenous group in Guatemala. Her native language is Kanjobal and she wears clothing distinct to Mayans. She never attended school and cannot read or write. Maria currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she works at a hotel. Maria is married to Juan Cano Lorenzo, who is also Mayan and currently resides in Guatemala. They have been married for eighteen years. They have four children together—the older two were born in Guatemala and the younger two were born in the United States. Their children, Sophia, Huberto, Maura, and Maria Floridalma, are ages seven, twelve, sixteen, and eighteen, respectively. Huberto is autistic and cannot speak. Sophia and Huberto reside with Maria in Nashville. 1 For the sake of clarity, we refer to Maria Magdalena Juan Antonio and Juan Cano Lorenzo by their first names. No. 18-3500 Juan Antonio v. Barr Page 3 Maria’s application for asylum and withholding of removal stems from domestic violence suffered at the hands of her husband. This abuse arose within the broader context of systemic violence, harassment, and subordination of indigenous Mayan women in Guatemala. The larger societal context will be discussed below. Six months after Maria and Juan ...

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