Case: 18-60115 Document: 00514945222 Page: 1 Date Filed: 05/06/2019 IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit No. 18-60115 FILED May 6, 2019 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk WENDY YESSENIA CANTARERO-LAGOS; HENRY OMAR BONILLA-CANTARERO, Petitioners v. WILLIAM P. BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals Before DAVIS, JONES, and DENNIS, Circuit Judges. EDITH H. JONES, Circuit Judge: Petitioners Wendy Cantarero-Lagos and her minor son, Henry Bonilla- Cantarero, filed a petition for review challenging an order by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) denying their applications for asylum and withholding of removal. They claim that the BIA reversibly erred by refusing to consider a reformulated particular social group (“PSG”) on appeal. Because the BIA is not required to consider a PSG on appeal that was never presented to the immigration judge (“IJ”), the BIA’s order is AFFIRMED. Case: 18-60115 Document: 00514945222 Page: 2 Date Filed: 05/06/2019 No. 18-60115 BACKGROUND Petitioner Wendy Cantarero-Lagos came to the United States from Honduras with her minor son, Petitioner Henry Bonilla-Cantarero, in June 2014. After they were apprehended by Border Patrol agents, Petitioners admitted to crossing the border illegally, conceded removability, and filed applications for asylum and withholding of removal. At their hearing before an IJ, Cantarero-Lagos testified that she and her son left Honduras because, in 2012, she had been threatened by gang members who were trying to extort her and, in 2001, her father had attempted to rape her. 1 She did not report either incident to the police, nor did she experience continued threats from either the gang members or her father after the 2012 and 2001 incidents. Cantarero-Lagos told the IJ that she feared returning to Honduras with her son because gang activity and rapes were on the rise and she doubted the ability of law enforcement to provide protection. After Cantarero-Lagos finished testifying, her attorney defined her PSG as “single Honduran women, aged 14 to 30, who are victims of sexual abuse within the family and whom the government fails to protect.” 2 However, when the IJ expressed skepticism about this definition, her attorney revised the PSG to “single Honduran women, age 14 to 30, who are victims of sexual abuse within the family and who cannot turn to the government.” In an oral decision, the IJ denied the petitions for relief. Although the IJ found Cantarero-Lagos’s testimony credible, he concluded that her PSG was not cognizable and that it lacked any nexus to her cited harms. 1In her briefing to this court, Cantarero-Lagos stated that “[t]he gangs threatened and harassed her for ten years prior to her leaving Honduras.” However, her testimony only identified three incidents in 2012, and the IJ’s decision only referenced those three 2012 incidents. 2 Bonilla-Cantarero’s application is based on his mother’s claims. 2 Case: 18-60115 Document: 00514945222 Page: 3 Date Filed: 05/06/2019 No. 18-60115 On appeal before the BIA, Cantarero-Lagos conceded that the PSG she presented ...
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