Sandra Lopez-Gonzalez v. Loretta E. Lynch

MEMORANDUM

Sandra del Carmen Lopez-Gonzalez petitions for review of the dismissal by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) of her appeal from the decision by an Immigration Judge (“U”) denying her applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We deny the petition in part, grant it in part, and remand for further proceedings.

1. Because Lopez-Gonzalez did not address her CAT claim in her opening brief, it is waived. See Martinez-Serrano v. INS, 94 F.3d 1256, 1259-60 (9th Cir.1996). We therefore deny the petition insofar as it seeks review of the denial of the CAT application.

2. In dismissing the asylum and withholding of removal applications, the BIA simply concluded that Lopez-Gonzalez “failed to establish a nexus” to a “cognizable particular social group” because, “at a minimum,” the social group in which she claimed membership lacked “the required ‘particularity.’ ”

3. At the time it decided this case, the BIA did not have the benefit of this court’s decisions in Perdomo v. Holder, 611 F.3d 662 (9th Cir.2010), and Henriquez-Rivas v. Holder, 707 F.3d 1081 (9th…