De Los Angeles Alvarez v. Garland ( 2023 )

Case: 22-60528 Document: 00516816858 Page: 1 Date Filed: 07/11/2023
United States Court of Appeals
for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals
Fifth Circuit
____________ FILED
July 11, 2023
No. 22-60528 Lyle W. Cayce
Summary Calendar Clerk
____________
Amparo De Los Angeles Alvarez; Brayan Orlando Reyes-
Alvarez; Jenifer Estefany Reyes-Alvarez,
Petitioners,
versus
Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney General,
Respondent.
______________________________
Petition for Review of an Order of the
Board of Immigration Appeals
Agency Nos. A206 624 239,
A206 624 240, A206 624 241
______________________________
Before Wiener, Elrod, and Engelhardt, Circuit Judges.
Per Curiam:*
Amparo De Los Angeles Alvarez and her children, Brayan Orlando
Reyes-Alvarez and Jenifer Estefany Reyes-Alvarez, petition for review of the
Board of Immigration Appeals’s decision dismissing their appeal from the
Immigration Judge’s denial of De Los Angeles Alvarez’s application for
_____________________
*
This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.
Case: 22-60528 Document: 00516816858 Page: 2 Date Filed: 07/11/2023
No. 22-60528
asylum and withholding of removal. Brayan and Jenifer are derivatives of
their mother’s application for relief.
We review findings of fact, including the denial of asylum and
withholding of removal, under the substantial evidence standard. See
Gonzales-Veliz v. Barr, 938 F.3d 219, 224 (5th Cir. 2019). Conclusions of law
are reviewed de novo. See Sharma v. Holder, 729 F.3d 407, 411 (5th Cir.
2013).
Substantial evidence supports the BIA’s holding that De Los Angeles
Alvarez’s proposed particular social group of “young women in El Salvador
who cannot escape sexual abuse by criminal groups” is not cognizable
because it is impermissibly defined by the harm. See Jaco v. Garland, 24 F.4th
395, 407 (5th Cir. 2021) (holding that a PSG “must exist independent of the
persecution claimed”); Gonzales-Veliz, 938 F.3d at 232 (holding that PSG of
“Honduran women unable to leave their relationship” does not exist
independently of the harm). De Los Angeles Alvarez’s failure to show a
cognizable PSG is dispositive of her asylum and withholding of removal
claims. See id. at 224. We have expressly rejected Salazar’s second issue on
review that a notice to appear without a date and time of the removal hearing
is defective outside of the in-absentia or stop-time rule context. See Garcia v.
Garland, 28 F.4th 644, 646-48 (5th Cir. 2022).
Accordingly, the petition for review is DENIED.
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