Anabely Gonzalez Ortiz v. Merrick B. Garland


RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION Pursuant to Sixth Circuit I.O.P. 32.1(b) File Name: 21a0169p.06 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT ┐ ANABELY GONZALEZ ORTIZ; AMIR GONZALEZ ORTIZ, │ Petitioners, │ > No. 20-4248 │ v. │ │ MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, │ │ Respondent. ┘ On Petition for Review from the Board of Immigration Appeals; Nos. A 206-461-636; A 209-870-758. Decided and Filed: July 28, 2021 Before: COLE, ROGERS, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges. _________________ COUNSEL ON BRIEF: Sarah C. Larcade, MCKINNEY & NAMEI CO., LPA, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Petitioners. Rodolfo D. Saenz, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. _________________ OPINION _________________ MURPHY, Circuit Judge. Refugees who fear “persecution” in their home countries may seek asylum in the United States. See 8 U.S.C. §§ 1101(a)(42)(A), 1158(b)(1)(A). Although the immigration laws do not define the word “persecution,” the Board of Immigration Appeals and the courts have interpreted this term to have a state-action element: A country’s government must either directly inflict harm on an immigrant or be unable or unwilling to control a private party who inflicts the harm. See, e.g., K. H. v. Barr, 920 F.3d 470, 475 (6th Cir. 2019). No. 20-4248 Gonzalez Ortiz, et al. v. Garland Page 2 This case concerns this state-action element. Anabely Gonzalez Ortiz fled Guatemala to escape her ex-boyfriend’s abuse. The Board denied Gonzalez Ortiz asylum, holding that she failed to show that the Guatemalan government was unable or unwilling to control her abuser. The Board relied in part on a State Department report noting that Guatemala had “taken steps” to curb domestic violence. Gonzalez Ortiz now argues that the Board wrongly refused to reconsider this ruling on the ground that it conflicts with our recent decision in Juan Antonio v. Barr, 959 F.3d 778 (6th Cir. 2020). There, although recognizing that Guatemala had “taken some steps” to combat domestic violence, we still overturned the Board’s finding that the country was able to control an immigrant’s abusive spouse. Id. at 795. Yet Juan Antonio relied on the totality of the evidence to reject the Board’s finding, and our fact-specific rationales in that case do not transfer over to this one. While, for example, the police twice ignored the immigrant’s request for assistance in Juan Antonio, Gonzalez Ortiz never asked the authorities for help in this case. Because Gonzalez Ortiz misreads Juan Antonio’s scope, we deny her petition for review. I Gonzalez Ortiz was born and raised in Guatemala. During her childhood and into her early-adult years, she suffered through significant domestic abuse. Starting when she was just five years old, her father would regularly come home drunk and hit her, her mother, and her siblings with a pot, a pan, or anything else lying around the house. He would also regularly threaten to harm or even kill them. After Gonzalez Ortiz turned twenty, she met her boyfriend, Juan Carlos. A few months into this relationship, she testified, Juan Carlos raped her. She became pregnant. Gonzalez Ortiz was still living …

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