United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 18-3201 ___________________________ Zoila Deras Garcia Petitioner v. William P. Barr, Attorney General of the United States Respondent ____________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals ____________ Submitted: November 15, 2019 Filed: April 1, 2020 ____________ Before GRUENDER, KELLY, and ERICKSON, Circuit Judges. ____________ KELLY, Circuit Judge. El Salvadoran citizen Zoila Deras Garcia petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) dismissing her appeal from the decision of an immigration judge (IJ), which denied asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). Because we conclude that the BIA’s order is supported by substantial evidence, we deny the petition. I. Garcia entered the United States without inspection on or about April 30, 2016. After she was placed in removal proceedings, Garcia conceded removability and sought asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under CAT. She alleged that she was entitled to relief because she was a member of the particular social group, “El Salvadoran women who are unable to leave a domestic relationship,” based on her relationship with Carlos Alberto Alvarenga. Garcia gave inconsistent testimony about her relationship with Alvarenga, including conflicting details about the length of their relationship, the frequency of his abuse, and what she did after she left him. At the hearing, she testified variously that she first began a relationship with Alvarenga in 2004 and 2013. Garcia also previously informed an asylum officer that Alvarenga raped her only one time and that it occurred on December 25, 2015. Yet at the hearing, she initially denied the assault occurred on that date and instead testified that he raped her on another date: September 7, 2015, which she remembers as the first day after she moved to her grandmother’s house following her grandmother’s death. But she also testified that her grandmother died on January 8, 2016. When the IJ attempted to clarify, Garcia changed her testimony again and stated that there was only one rape, on December 25, 2015. Further, according to her border patrol statement, Garcia moved to San Salvador after she left Alvarenga and stayed with her uncle until she entered the United States. At the hearing, however, she stated she moved to Chalatenango and stayed in a hotel by herself for a week before entering the United States. Garcia also testified that she last saw Alvarenga in September 2015, but then contradicted herself by stating that Alvarenga found her while she was staying in Chalatenango, which would have been sometime in early 2016. Garcia was the sole witness at her immigration hearing before the IJ and provided no corroborative evidence. -2- Based on Garcia’s many inconsistent and contradictory statements, the totality of circumstances, and the lack of corroborating evidence, the IJ found Garcia not credible. Because of the “adverse credibility determination, a lack of corroborating evidence, and the weight of all other evidence,” the IJ determined that Garcia failed to demonstrate she suffered ...
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