Background
Petitioner Jose Santos Rodriguez-Cornejo sought review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ dismissal of his appeal from an Immigration Judge’s decision. The Immigration Judge had denied his applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture.
The court’s reasoning
The court found that the petitioner waived his challenge to the asylum denial. Regarding withholding of removal, the court held that while the first proposed social group lacked particularity, the Board of Immigration Appeals erred in its analysis of the second group by relying on outdated reasoning from Ramos-Lopez v. Holder. The court noted that the breadth and diversity rationale from that case is no longer followed after the en banc decision in Henriquez-Rivas v. Holder. Regarding Convention Against Torture protection, the court concluded that the record did not compel a finding that the petitioner faces a present likelihood of torture upon return to Honduras.
What it means going forward
The case is remanded to the Board of Immigration Appeals to reconsider the particularity of the proposed social group for withholding of removal in light of current Ninth Circuit precedent.