NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION File Name: 19a0558n.06 No. 18-4170 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT RUTH CARDENAS PALENCIA, aka Ruth ) FILED Nov 04, 2019 Cardenas de Zuniga, ) ) 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: COLE, Chief Judge; MERRITT and LARSEN, Circuit Judges. LARSEN, Circuit Judge. Ruth Cardenas Palencia entered the United States unlawfully for the third time in 2013. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sought to reinstate a prior removal order entered against her. Palencia applied for withholding of removal under the Immigration Nationality Act (INA) and for protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). An Immigration Judge (IJ) denied Palencia relief and ordered her removed from the country. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) affirmed, and Palencia petitioned this court for review. Because Palencia failed to properly present her claims to the BIA, we lack statutory authority to hear her appeal and must dismiss her petition. I. Palencia is a native citizen of Honduras. In 1999, she entered the United States with the assistance of a Honduran smuggler. Together, they crossed the Rio Grande on a raft near El Paso, Texas. Border Patrol agents apprehended and detained Palencia in Texas. DHS initiated a removal No. 18-4170, Cardenas Palencia v. Barr action, and she was released pending those proceedings. Palencia provided DHS with an address given to her by the smuggler. After her release, Palencia traveled with the smuggler to Michigan, where the smuggler kept her against her will for more than a year. Eventually, Palencia managed to escape. She bought a bus ticket and traveled to Atlanta, Georgia. At that point, she lost contact with DHS. Palencia never updated her address and, as a result, stopped receiving information regarding her removal proceedings. In August of 2001, an IJ ordered Palencia removed in absentia. She voluntarily returned to Honduras in 2002. Palencia re-entered the United States in both 2003 and 2013. After crossing the border with her son in 2013, Palencia was detained by Border Patrol agents in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley. DHS notified her of its intent to reinstate her removal order. Palencia expressed fear that she and her children would be persecuted if removed to Honduras, and she was referred to an asylum officer. In her interview with the asylum officer, Palencia testified that she feared that a Honduran gang, known as “Maya 18,” would kill or seriously harm her and her son because Palencia’s son had previously refused to join the gang. She testified that her former neighbor was “killed and burned” for a similar refusal to join the gang. The asylum officer found Palencia’s fear of persecution credible and referred her to an IJ. Palencia applied for withholding of removal under § 241(b)(3) of the INA and protection under CAT. The IJ denied Palencia’s applications, finding her testimony inconsistent and concluding that she ...
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