Case: 18-14098 Date Filed: 09/18/2019 Page: 1 of 15 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 18-14098 Non-Argument Calendar ________________________ Agency No. A208-902-636 ALBA R. ACOSTA REYES, ULISES OSMIN MALDONADO-ACOSTA, Petitioners, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ________________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals ________________________ (September 18, 2019) Before WILSON, ROSENBAUM, and HULL, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Case: 18-14098 Date Filed: 09/18/2019 Page: 2 of 15 Alba Rosa Acosta Reyes and her minor son, Ulises Osmin Maldonado- Acosta, seek review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) final order affirming the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of her application for asylum and withholding of removal. Acosta Reyes1 argues that the BIA erred in finding that she failed to show that she had been persecuted on account of either her membership in a particular social group or her political opinion. She argues that her proposed group—victims of extortion and attempted extortion by the El Salvadorian gangs, the “Maras”—was sufficiently particular and explicitly tied to the reason that she was threatened. I. Background Acosta Reyes and her son are natives of El Salvador. In early March 2016, while still in El Salvador, a man dressed in black with a mask over his face came to Acosta Reyes’s house. She identified him as a member of the El Salvador gangs, or “Maras.” He asked her for money, and she told him she did not have any. The man responded, “you better find a way to pay me, and if you do not I will kill you, your son, and your mother.” He said he would return for the money. Acosta Reyes testified that she was afraid for her and her son’s lives. While this was the first time 1 Acosta Reyes’s son was joined as a derivative to the asylum application, pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b)(3). Therefore, Maldonado-Acosta’s asylum eligibility is based upon his mother’s claim. See 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b)(3)(A). For clarity and readability, this opinion groups together Acosta Reyes and Maldonado-Acosta and does not differentiate between the two. 2 Case: 18-14098 Date Filed: 09/18/2019 Page: 3 of 15 the Maras came to Acosta Reyes’s house, the Maras had approached the ten other houses in her neighborhood before. She did not report the incident to the police because she believed they would not help. Additionally, she did not attempt to relocate within El Salvador. Acosta Reyes and her son left El Salvador for the United States a few days later. The two entered the United States near Roma, Texas, without visas on March 24, 2016. Subsequently, the Department of Homeland Security issued Acosta Reyes a Notice to Appear, which charged that she was removable under Section 212(a)(7)(A)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) as an alien present in the United States without valid entry documents. After Acosta Reyes expressed a fear of returning to El Salvador, the Department of Homeland Security completed a credible-fear interview with her. ...
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