Alberto Orellano Gonzalez v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Alberto Gertrudis Orellano Gonzalez, a native and citizen of El Salvador, 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, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). Our jurisdiction is governed by 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We dismiss in part and grant the petition for review, and we remand.

We lack jurisdiction to review Orellano Gonzalez’s challenges to the IJ’s denial of CAT relief because he did not raise them to the BIA. See Barron v. Ashcroft, 358 F.3d 674, 678 (9th Cir.2004).

In denying Orellano Gonzalez’s asylum and withholding of removal claims, the agency found Orellano Gonzalez 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 this court’s decisions in Henriquez-Rivas v. Holder, 707 F.3d 1081 (9th Cir.2013) (en banc), Cordoba v. Holder, 726 F.3d 1106 (9th Cir.2013), and Pirir-Boc v. Holder, 750 F.3d 1077 (9th Cir.2014), or the BIA’s decisions in Matter…