NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 21a0337n.06 Case No. 20-4022 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED Jul 14, 2021 SILVIA MARITZA SANDOVAL, et al., ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk ) Petitioners, ) ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW v. ) FROM THE UNITED STATES ) BOARD OF IMMIGRATION MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, ) APPEALS Respondent. ) ) BEFORE: SILER, MOORE, and THAPAR, Circuit Judges. THAPAR, J., delivered the opinion of the court in which SILER, J., joined. MOORE, J. (pp. 4–6), delivered a separate dissenting opinion. THAPAR, Circuit Judge. Petitioner Silvia Sandoval entered the United States with her three children after a jealous woman threatened her life. Sandoval and her children applied for asylum and withholding of removal, but an Immigration Judge denied their application. The Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed. Because threats born of romantic jealousy do not establish eligibility for asylum or withholding of removal, we deny the petition for review. I. Silvia Sandoval is a citizen of El Salvador. She lived in El Salvador with her children and her husband, Silas. One of their neighbors, Maria, fell in love with Silas and grew jealous of his marriage. Maria wanted Silas to end his relationship with his wife, but he refused. Case No. 20-4022, Sandoval v. Garland Maria was determined to have Silas to herself, so she started sending Silvia threatening messages. At the start, she communicated through intermediaries: She first asked a gang member to make the threats, and then she told Silvia’s cousin and aunt that she would make Silvia disappear. Before long, Maria started approaching Silvia herself. She hopped over Silvia’s fence and yelled that Silvia would die if she didn’t let Silas go. Then she did the same thing again, but armed with a knife. Silvia filed a police report and fled to the United States with her children. Silas soon followed. Silvia and the children applied for asylum and withholding of removal. They argued that they were persecuted because of their membership in Silas’s family. Although the Immigration Judge found Silvia’s testimony credible, she found that Maria was not motivated by animus against the family and denied the applications. The Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed. Silvia and her three children now petition for review. II. To be eligible for asylum or withholding of removal, Silvia and her children must show at least a “well-founded fear” that they would be persecuted in El Salvador because of their “race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” 8 U.S.C. §§ 1158(b)(1)(B)(i), 1101(a)(42)(A), 1231(b)(3)(A); Skripkov v. Barr, 966 F.3d 480, 492 (6th Cir. 2020). The petitioners argue that they have been persecuted because of their membership in a particular social group—that is, as members of Silas’s family. The BIA assumed that kinship with Silas could constitute a protected social group (and, for purposes of review, so do we). But it found that Silvia and her children were not persecuted because of their membership in that group. We review this …
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