Juan Londono-Gutierrez v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Mariela Yasmin Rivera-Esquivel, a native and citizen of El Salvador, petitions pro se for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) order dismissing her appeal from an immigration judge’s (“IJ”) decision denying her application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). We have jurisdiction .under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We deny in part and grant in part the petition for review, and we remand.

Rivera-Esquivel does not challenge the BIA’s denial of CAT relief. See Martinez-Serrano v. INS, 94 F.3d 1256, 1259-60 (9th Cir.1996) (issues not specifically raised and argued in a party’s opening brief are waived).

In denying Rivera-Esquivel’s asylum and withholding of removal claims, the agency found she failed to establish past persecution or a fear of future persecution on account of a protected ground. When the BIA and IJ issued its decisions, 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 of M-E-V-G-,…