United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 18-3651 ___________________________ Mario Mejia-Lopez; Silvia Lorena Rodas-Ordonez; Erick Fernando Mejia-Rodas; Meylin Lorena Mejia-Rodas; Luis Mario Mejia-Rodas lllllllllllllllllllllPetitioners v. William P. Barr, Attorney General of the United States lllllllllllllllllllllRespondent ____________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals ____________ Submitted: September 24, 2019 Filed: December 11, 2019 ____________ Before SMITH, Chief Judge, BEAM and ERICKSON, Circuit Judges. ____________ SMITH, Chief Judge. Petitioners seek review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) denial of their request for humanitarian asylum. Mario Mejia-Lopez and Silvia Rodas-Ordonez are the parents of Erick Mejia-Rodas, Meylin Mejia-Rodas, and Luis Mejia-Rodas, and they seek asylum for themselves and their children. They contend that the BIA erred in requiring that they show past persecution on account of a protected ground as a prerequisite for obtaining humanitarian asylum. Petitioners also request that we remand this case to the BIA for full development of the record on their humanitarian-asylum claim. We deny the petition for review. I. Background Petitioners are natives and citizens of Guatemala. On or about October 31, 2016, petitioners reached the United States-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas. Petitioners did not present valid entry or travel documents upon applying for admission and, therefore, were paroled into the United States. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) simultaneously served petitioners with a notice to appear (NTA), which charged petitioners with being removable pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) § 212(a)(7)(A)(i)(I). See 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(7)(A)(i)(I). Petitioners resided in Carthage, Missouri. In January 2017, DHS filed the NTA in the Immigration Court in Kansas City, Missouri, initiating formal removal proceedings against petitioners. In June 2017, petitioners admitted to all factual allegations in the NTA, conceded removability, and declined to designate a country of removal. The immigration judge (IJ) designated Guatemala as the country of removal, and petitioners informed the IJ that they would apply for asylum and other relief. Petitioners claimed that they qualified for asylum based on (1) their membership in two particular social groups (PSG) and (2) their political opinions. Meylin alleged that she had suffered past persecution as a member of “female children subjected to rape within a society where the subordination and devaluation of women by men ha[ve] allowed them to be sexually persecuted with government sanctioned impunity.” Pet’rs’ Br. at 5 (quoting Admin. R. at 4). The remaining petitioners stated that they are members of one family and averred past persecution based on their kinship to Meylin. Petitioners explained that a man had raped Meylin -2- when she was 13 years old. They alleged that the perpetrator’s supporters had threatened to kill petitioners if they pursued criminal charges. The threats caused petitioners to seek refuge in the United States. They also contended that the ordeal has traumatized Meylin and affected her well-being. In addition, petitioners asserted that they had been persecuted based on their political opinions. According to petitioners, they expressed their political opinions when Meylin had resisted the ...
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