Gonzalez Rodriguez V Bondi
NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS JUL 22 2025
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
LIZBETH GONZALEZ No. 24-3347
RODRIGUEZ; A.E.A.G.; J.S.G., Agency Nos.
A246-627-467
Petitioners, A246-627-468
A246-627-469
v.
PAMELA BONDI, Attorney General, MEMORANDUM*
Respondent.
On Petition for Review of an Order of the
Board of Immigration Appeals
Submitted July 10, 2025**
Seattle, Washington
Before: McKEOWN, PAEZ, and SANCHEZ, Circuit Judges.
Lizbeth Gonzalez Rodriguez and her two sons, natives and citizens of
Mexico, petition for review of a decision from the Board of Immigration Appeals
(“BIA”), dismissing her appeal of an order from an Immigration Judge (“IJ”)
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
**
The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
denying asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against
Torture (“CAT”).
Our review is limited to the BIA’s decision except to the extent that it
expressly adopts the IJ’s opinion. Garcia v. Wilkinson, 988 F.3d 1136, 1142 (9th
Cir. 2021). Exercising jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a), we grant the petition
for review and remand to the BIA for further proceedings.
1. The agency’s denial of asylum and withholding of removal was based on
legal error. In determining that Petitioners did not establish past persecution, the
BIA stated that a persecutor’s “will or ability to carry out the threat relates to
the . . . fear of future persecution, and not the past persecution finding.” This
misstates our law.
“Threats are relevant to the past persecution analysis.” Sharma v. Garland,
9 F.4th 1052, 1062 (9th Cir. 2021). This is because threats themselves can be “so
menacing as to cause significant actual suffering or harm.” Duran-Rodriguez v.
Barr, 918 F.3d 1025, 1028 (9th Cir. 2019) (citation omitted); see Corpeno-Romero
v. Garland, 120 F.4th 570, 578–79 (9th Cir. 2024). “What matters, in assessing the
sufficiency of the threat to establish persecution, is whether the group making the
threat has the will or the ability to carry it out—not whether it is, in fact, carried
out.” Aden v. Wilkinson, 989 F.3d 1073, 1083 (9th Cir. 2021) (internal quotation
marks and citation omitted) (analyzing past persecution). Indeed, on multiple
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occasions, we have analyzed a group’s will or ability to carry out a death threat to
determine whether a death threat is specific and menacing and credible so as to
constitute past persecution. See, e.g., id.; Corpeno-Romero, 120 F.4th at 578–79;
Duran-Rodriguez, 918 F.3d at 1028; Flores Molina v. Garland, 37 F.4th 626, 634–
35 (9th Cir. 2022); Fon v. Garland, 34 F.4th 810, 815 (9th Cir. 2022). The BIA
therefore committed legal error.
The BIA did not provide an alternative, independent basis for its asylum and
withholding of removal decisions. The BIA’s determination that Petitioners failed
to establish a well-founded fear of persecution is not independent of its past
persecution determination. The burden of proof regarding Petitioners’ well-
founded fear of persecution depends on its past persecution determination. See
Singh v. Whitaker, 914 F.3d 654, 659 (9th Cir. 2019); 8 C.F.R. § 1208.13(b)(1).
Accordingly, we remand Petitioners’ asylum and withholding of removal claims to
the agency so that it can reconsider these claims under the correct legal framework.
See De Souza Silva v. Bondi, 139 F.4th 1137, 1145 (9th Cir. 2025).
2. We also remand Petitioners’ CAT claim. First, the BIA mischaracterized
Petitioners’ arguments about their risk of torture as “general arguments.” Unlike
the petitioner in Delgado-Ortiz v. Holder, 600 F.3d 1148, 1152 (9th Cir. 2010),
who submitted only “generalized evidence of violence and crime in Mexico,”
Petitioners do not rely on generalized country conditions evidence showing a
3 24-3347
random risk of violence. Rather, they have presented evidence that they
specifically are likely to be killed because of their involvement in anti-cartel
community policing efforts and their decision to stop paying the cartel. Evidence
that other similarly situated individuals in Petitioners’ community have been
murdered, combined with evidence that Petitioners have had direct confrontations
with cartel members before, is not generalized but particularized evidence that the
BIA appears not to have considered.1 See Parada v. Sessions, 902 F.3d 901, 914
(9th Cir. 2018) (remanding where, “in violation of our precedent and CAT’s
implementing regulations,” the BIA “ignored pertinent evidence in the record”).
Second, the BIA held that the IJ appropriately found “no evidence” in the
record that the Mexican government would acquiesce in torture. In doing so, the
BIA “fail[ed] to mention highly probative evidence.” Cole v. Holder, 659 F.3d
762, 772 (9th Cir. 2011). As Gonzalez Rodriguez credibly testified, she filed a
report with the state prosecutor’s office regarding her employees being beaten, tied
up, and left on the side of the road, and never heard back from that office about her
report. Additionally, “[e]vidence showing widespread corruption of public
officials—as the record reveals here—can be highly probative.” Parada, 902 F.3d
1
For example, Petitioners presented evidence that multiple members of the
community policing organization that Gonzalez Rodriguez and her husband
supported were murdered, and that another store owner in the neighborhood, as
well as a cousin and her employee, were murdered after they stopped paying fees
to the cartel.
4 24-3347
at 916. Ample record evidence indicated corruption in Mexico’s local police
forces and in local government, including reports that twelve mayors in
Petitioners’ home state were linked to organized crime. The 2022 State
Department Report on Mexico also stated that “[i]mpunity and extremely low rates
of prosecution remained a problem for all crimes,” and a “majority” of crimes,
including torture, carried out by transnational gangs and narcotics traffickers
“remained uninvestigated and unprosecuted.” The BIA did not meaningfully
consider any such evidence.
Because neither basis for the BIA’s CAT decision can stand, see Cole, 659
F.3d at 771–72, we remand Petitioners’ CAT claim to the agency for
reconsideration.
PETITION GRANTED and REMANDED.
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