NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION File Name: 19a0078n.06 No. 18-3564 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED Feb 15, 2019 ROSA CHIROY-MELCHOR, ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk ) Petitioner, ) ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW v. ) FROM THE UNITED STATES ) BOARD OF IMMIGRATION WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General, ) APPEALS ) Respondent. ) BEFORE: McKEAGUE, GRIFFIN, and NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM. Rosa Chiroy-Melchor, a native and citizen of Guatemala, petitions this court for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) dismissing her appeal from the denial of her asylum application. We DENY the petition for review. I. Chiroy-Melchor entered the United States without inspection in January 2014, when she was twenty-three years old. Upon her apprehension in Arizona, the Department of Homeland Security served Chiroy-Melchor with a notice to appear in removal proceedings, charging her with removability as an alien lacking a valid entry document when she sought admission to the United States. See 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(7)(A)(i)(I). Chiroy-Melchor appeared before an immigration judge (IJ), admitted the factual allegations set forth in the notice to appear, and conceded removability as charged. No. 18-3564, Chiroy-Melchor v. Barr Chiroy-Melchor filed an application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), seeking relief based on her race and membership in a particular social group. Chiroy-Melchor alleged in her application that her brothers-in-law harassed and attempted to rape her and that they will rape and kill her and her daughter if she returns to Guatemala. At the merits hearing before the IJ, Chiroy-Melchor testified that she came to the United States because her brothers-in-law were threatening her. According to Chiroy- Melchor, her brother-in-law, Hermenegildo, tried to rape her when she was eight years old and continued to harass her after that. Chiroy-Melchor testified that Hermenegildo left her alone after she got married in 2005, but resumed harassing her when her husband left for the United States in 2010. Another brother-in-law, Francisco, also harassed Chiroy-Melchor beginning in 2013. At the conclusion of the hearing, Chiroy-Melchor claimed persecution based on her membership in two particular social groups: (1) the Chiroy-Melchor family and (2) Guatemalan women who lack effective familial protection. The IJ subsequently denied Chiroy-Melchor’s application for asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT protection and ordered her removal to Guatemala. The IJ found Chiroy- Melchor to be credible but found, despite discrepancies between her testimony and her written submissions, that the sexual advances of her brothers-in-law did not constitute persecution. The IJ rejected Chiroy-Melchor’s particular social groups because she had failed to show that the Chiroy-Melchor family was socially distinct within Guatemalan society or that the lack of effective familial protection was an immutable characteristic. The IJ further noted that Chiroy-Melchor had failed to explain why she could not relocate within Guatemala and that her daughter remained in Guatemala unharmed. Because Chiroy-Melchor had not demonstrated a well-founded fear of persecution to support her asylum claim, the IJ determined, she could not ...
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