The Fourth Circuit has published another case affirming that family ties can form a particular social group for asylum and withholding of removal purposes.
“The record before us conclusively establishes a nexus between the death threats made against Diaz de Gomez and her ties to her nuclear family. Three facts are particularly probative of this nexus. Most notably, the threats to Diaz de Gomez’s family members first began when multiple members of that family, including Diaz de Gomez, witnessed a gang killing in 2008. Shortly thereafter, Diaz de Gomez’s husband started receiving threats, including threats to kill Diaz de Gomez and other family members if he did not agree to work for the gang. Second, after Diaz de Gomez’s husband fled to the United States, her brother started receiving death threats to coerce him to join the gang. And third, Diaz de Gomez began to receive threats personally in 2015, after two key events: (1) the April 2015 moped collision initiated by the Zetas when gang members saw Diaz de Gomez with her brother, who had refused to join the gang and was murdered a few months later; and (2) Diaz de Gomez’s parents’ refusal to acquiesce to the gang’s attempts at extortion. In both instances, the gang threatened to kill the brother and parents’ family members if they did not agree to the gang’s demands. The timing and context of these threats lead to the unmistakable conclusion that Diaz de Gomez was targeted, at least for one central reason, based on her relationship to her family. In light of this evidence, the record conclusively shows that more than one central reason motivated the gang’s death threats against Diaz de Gomez, namely, her and her family’s refusal to acquiesce to the gang’s several demands, and Diaz de Gomez’s familial ties to her brother, husband, and parents. As we previously have emphasized, the fact that the gang sought to recruit Diaz de Gomez and her family members does not preclude a finding that her familial ties were another central reason that she was persecuted by the gang, establishing the required nexus.“
The Court further concluded that the petitioner had demonstrated that the Guatemalan government was unable or unwilling to control her persecutors. “Diaz de Gomez provided credible testimony that she reported the escalating threats against her to the police in 2015, following the moped accident. She stated that she had been afraid to report the threats earlier, because people tend to “just show up dead” after filing police reports. To support her allegations, she showed law enforcement officers the written messages she had received, and also provided audio recordings of the telephone threats. She reported the threats to both the public affairs ministry and to the local police. Neither law enforcement agency took any action in response to the reports; no one was arrested, and officials never provided Diaz de Gomez any updates on the investigation. She returned to the police station twice to check on the status of the investigation, and was told both times that the person in charge of her case was unavailable. A friend who followed up after Diaz de Gomez left for the United States received the same response. This lack of action by law enforcement authorities is consistent with evidence of country conditions that Diaz de Gomez submitted to corroborate her claims. The 2015 Department of State Country Report on Human Rights Practices noted Guatemala’s widespread institutional corruption, particularly in the police and judicial sectors, including the involvement of police and military officers in drug trafficking and extortion. Referencing the Zetas specifically, one 2010 academic study explained that the gang has a “propensity to attack state institutions,” including by bribing police and judicial officials and infiltrating the gang’s supporters into the civil service. Approximately $1 billion of drug proceeds is used to bribe Guatemalan government officials annually, and corruption is rampant at the local level. Notably, organized crime has infested so many Guatemalan] state institutions as to render them virtually worthless, and the government has fail[ed] to provide even a minimal level of domestic security. This evidence of widespread gang influence and corruption, together with Diaz de Gomez’s credible testimony regarding her fear of reporting the Zetas and the failure of law enforcement to investigate her claim, leads to the inescapable conclusion that the government was unwilling or unable to protect her from her persecutors.”
The full text of Diaz de Gomez v. Wilkinson can be found here: