The Sixth Circuit has overturned the denial of a motion to reopen premised on a family-based asylum claim.
"But the only way that the BIA could have deemed that connection 'unclear' is if it had discredited Trujillo Diaz’s father’s declaration. His declaration explicitly links his kidnapping (and the threats of harm to Trujillo Diaz) to his and his daughter’s familial ties to his son, who refused to join the cartel. In his declaration, he described the Knights Templar members’ statements that revealed the correlation between his kidnapping and his son’s refusal to join the La Familia cartel: (1) they wanted to find Omar Daniel because they were angry that he had refused to join the cartel and fled to the United States; (2) they knew Trujillo Diaz’s father was the father of Omar Daniel and Trujillo Diaz; and (3) they would hurt the rest of his family if they 'could not get their hands on Omar Daniel and Maribel.' Trujillo Diaz’s father did not speculate or draw conclusions as to the Knights Templar’s motivation; he relayed precisely what they told him. Thus, the BIA discredited Trujillo Diaz’s evidence of familial motivation. And because it dismissed this motivation, it determined that Trujillo Diaz’s fear was not of being targeted because she was part of a particular social group, but rather just a general fear of crime. The BIA provided no other rationale for rejecting Trujillo Diaz’s prima facie case of eligibility for asylum and withholding of removal under the INA."
The full text of Trujillo Diaz v. Sessions:
http://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/18a0012p-06.pdf