Case: 21-60920 Document: 00516838613 Page: 1 Date Filed: 07/28/2023 United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit ____________ FILED July 28, 2023 No. 21-60920 Lyle W. Cayce ____________ Clerk Denilson Alexis Morazan-Castro, Petitioner, versus Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney General, Respondent. ______________________________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals Agency No. A089 099 603 ______________________________ Before Wiener, Southwick, and Duncan, Circuit Judges. Leslie H. Southwick, Circuit Judge: * The Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed petitioner’s appeal from an order of the immigration judge denying his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. The central issue presented for our review is whether petitioner should have been classified as an unaccompanied alien child when he entered the country in 2008. We find no error and DENY the petition for review. _____________________ * This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5. Case: 21-60920 Document: 00516838613 Page: 2 Date Filed: 07/28/2023 No. 21-60920 FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Denilson Alexis Morazan-Castro is a native and citizen of Honduras. In September 2008, when he was nine years old, he entered the United States with his 12-year-old brother, Walter Rene Morazan-Castro, without being admitted or paroled. They were each issued a notice to appear, and removal proceedings were initiated against them in immigration court. 1 Morazan-Castro was initially detained but was released in December 2008 to his aunt in Texas. In May 2009, the immigration judge (“IJ”) ordered administrative closure of Morazan-Castro’s court proceedings to allow him to file an asylum application with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”), which has initial jurisdiction over an asylum application filed by an unaccompanied alien child (“UAC”). See 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b)(3)(C); William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, Pub. L. No. 110-457, 122 Stat. 5044, 5081. In January 2010, Morazan-Castro filed an I-589 application with USCIS seeking asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). On his application, in response to the question regarding the “Current Location” of his parents and siblings, he listed that his mother and brother were in the “same” location as was he. In February 2010, after filing his application, Morazan-Castro, was interviewed by an asylum officer. USCIS issued notice in July 2010, explaining that it lacked jurisdiction over Morazan-Castro’s I-589 application because he did not qualify as a UAC. The notice stated, without elaboration, that, at the time of his filing, he had “a parent or legal guardian in the United States who is available to provide care and physical custody of” him. _____________________ 1 The brothers’ cases were companion cases, but Walter’s case was severed and is not part of this petition for review. 2 Case: 21-60920 Document: 00516838613 Page: 3 Date Filed: 07/28/2023 No. 21-60920 Because USCIS concluded that it lacked jurisdiction, the case returned to immigration court. In April 2012, Morazan-Castro moved for administrative closure of his case on the ground …
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