Del Carmen Molina v. Immigration & Naturalization Service

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Dinora Del Molina and her two minor children, Ligia Elena Salazar and Henry Salazar-Molina, petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) decision denying their applications for asylum and withholding of deportation.

Molina and her children are all citizens of El Salvador seeking political asylum in the United States. They entered the United States without inspection in November 1991, and were issued Orders to Show Cause in July 1995. They conceded deportability in 1996, and applied for asylum and withholding of deportation. Molina’s application is based on her persecution by guerrillas in El Salvador on account of her opposition to the guerrillas and her family’s military affiliation. The minors’ applications are derivative of their mother’s.

At a hearing before an Immigration Judge (“IJ”) in June 1996, Molina testified that, because of her family’s military involvement, her cousins and their families were killed by the guerrillas in El Salvador. She also testified that she herself received two threatening notes from the guerrillas, one in 1989 and one in 1991.

The IJ issued an oral decision denying the Molinas’ applications for asylum and…