Case: 18-60613 Document: 00515055054 Page: 1 Date Filed: 07/30/2019 IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit FILED July 30, 2019 No. 18-60613 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk NERY NOLASCO QUINTANILLA-MIRANDA, also known as Nery Quintanilla, Petitioner v. WILLIAM P. BARR, U. S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals BIA No. A204-650-077 Before HIGGINSON and WILLETT, Circuit Judges, and BROWN, District Judge.* STEPHEN A. HIGGINSON, Circuit Judge:** Nery Nolasco Quintanilla Miranda petitions for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decision denying his requests for withholding of removal and voluntary departure. We deny the petition. * District Judge of the Northern District of Mississippi, sitting by designation. **Pursuant to 5TH CIR. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5TH CIR. R. 47.5.4. Case: 18-60613 Document: 00515055054 Page: 2 Date Filed: 07/30/2019 No. 18-60613 Quintanilla Miranda is a native and citizen of Honduras. As a child, he was the victim of severe abuse by his father. In 2007, at the age of fifteen, he left Honduras and entered the United States unlawfully. In 2014, the Department of Homeland Security initiated removal proceedings against him based on his unlawful presence in the United States. Quintanilla Miranda acknowledged entering the country illegally but applied for withholding of removal under both Section 241(b)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and the Convention Against Torture (CAT). In the alternative, he requested voluntary departure. The immigration judge denied all relief and ordered Quintanilla Miranda removed to Honduras. The BIA dismissed his appeal, and this petition for review followed. I. To qualify for withholding of removal under the INA, Quintanilla Miranda bears the burden to show that his “life or freedom would be threatened in the proposed country of removal on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” 8 CFR § 208.16(b) (emphasis added). Under BIA precedent, “an applicant for asylum or withholding of removal seeking relief based on ‘membership in a particular social group’ must establish that the group is (1) composed of members who share a common immutable characteristic, (2) defined with particularity, and (3) socially distinct within the society in question.” Matter of M-E-V-G-, 26 I & N Dec. 227, 237 (BIA 2014). We have approved this framework as a reasonable interpretation of the INA. See Hernandez-De La Cruz v. Lynch, 819 F.3d 784, 786–87 & n.1 (5th Cir. 2016); Orellana-Monson v. Holder, 685 F.3d 511, 521 (5th Cir. 2012). In a recent precedential opinion, the Attorney General reaffirmed that “an applicant seeking to establish persecution on account of membership in a ‘particular social group’ . . . must demonstrate membership in a group, which 2 Case: 18-60613 Document: 00515055054 Page: 3 Date Filed: 07/30/2019 No. 18-60613 is composed of members who share a common immutable characteristic, is defined ...
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