Vasquez-Rivera v. Garland, No. 21-3344 (6th Cir. 2024)
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Gloris Sarai Vasquez-Rivera, a native and citizen of El Salvador, entered the United States without authorization in 2014, at the age of nine. She was served with a notice to appear in removal proceedings and charged as a noncitizen present in the country without being admitted or paroled after inspection by an immigration officer. Vasquez-Rivera applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture, citing fear of gang violence in El Salvador.
Vasquez-Rivera proposed four social groups for her asylum and withholding of removal claims: Salvadoran women and girls whose parents live outside the country; her family; family members of persons targeted for gang recruitment whose family is threatened when they refuse to join the gangs; and young Salvadoran women considered to be property of the gangs. Both the Immigration Judge (IJ) and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) found that three of these groups were not cognizable under federal immigration law. As for her family, the BIA assumed it constituted a distinct social group but agreed with the IJ that Vasquez-Rivera did not establish a nexus between this group and the harm she experienced and fears.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided to grant in part and deny in part the petition for review. It found that the BIA's conclusions regarding the nexus required for the family-as-a-particular-social-group claim lacked support in the record and amounted to improper de novo factfinding. The case was remanded to the BIA for further proceedings, applying circuit nexus precedent to Vasquez-Rivera’s asylum claim and claim for withholding of removal based on her membership in her family. The court upheld the BIA’s determination that Vasquez-Rivera had failed to establish eligibility for Convention Against Torture protection.
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