Carlos Palencia v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Juan Alberto Gonzalez-Flores, a native and citizen of Nicaragua, petitions pro se for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) order dismissing his appeal from an immigration judge’s (“IJ”) decision denying his application for asylum and withholding of removal. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We review for substantial evidence the agency’s factual findings. Santos-Lemus v. Muka-sey, 542 F.3d 738, 742 (9th Cir.2008). We deny in part and grant in part the petition for review, and we remand.

The record does not compel the conclusion that Gonzalez-Flores established changed or extraordinary circumstances sufficient to excuse his untimely filed asylum application. See 8 C.F.R. §§ 1208.4 (a)(4), (5). Accordingly, we deny the petition as to his asylum claim.

In denying Gonzalez-Flores’s withholding of removal claim, the BIA found Gonzalez-Flores failed to establish past persecution or a fear of future persecution on account of a protected ground. When the IJ and BIA issued their decisions in this case they did not have the benefit of either this court’s decisions in Henriquez-Rivas v. Holder, 707 F.3d 1081 (9th Cir.2013) (en banc), and Cordoba v.…