Claudia Pineda-Galdamez v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Claudia Veronica Pineda-Galdamez, a native and citizen of El Salvador, petitions pro se for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ order dismissing her appeal from an immigration judge’s decision denying her application for asylum and withholding of removal. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252. We review for substantial evidence, Lim v. INS, 224 F.3d 929, 933 (9th Cir.2000), and we deny the petition for review.

Substantial evidence supports the agency’s determination that Pineda-Galdamez did not establish past persecution based on her sexual assault by four gang members because she failed to show a nexus between the harm she suffered and one of the statutorily protected grounds. See Sangha v. INS, 103 F.3d 1482, 1489 (9th Cir.1997) (a petitioner cannot establish a nexus to a protected ground by inference “unless the inference is one that is clearly to be drawn from the facts in evidence”). As this incident and retaliatory harassment for reporting the crime is the only basis for petitioner’s claim of past persecution and of a well-founded fear of future persecution, her asylum claim fails. See id.

Because Pineda-Galdamez did not establish eligibility…