BIA Appeal for Asylum

7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Karla Granados Arias v. Merrick B. Garland

Case No.: 22-2148

Officials: Sykes, Chief Judge, and Rovner and Brennan, Circuit Judges.

Focus: BIA Appeal for Asylum

El Salvador citizen Karla Elizabeth Granados Arias and her sister, Maria, sold tortillas from a rented space in their mother’s home in El Salvador beginning in October 2013. The business was successful, and a few months after it opened, a note was slipped under their door. The note demanded they pay $50 per week and send with the payment a piece of intimate clothing. The author of the note threatened death if the police were contacted. Granados Arias recognized the handwriting on the note as belonging to a former classmate who she knew was a member of the Mara 18 gang.

Granados Arias and Maria paid the extortion demand for one week but did not leave clothing with the payment. Unable to afford payments and afraid of the gang, they ultimately closed their business. Because of the note, Granados Arias left El Salvador and illegally entered the United States in March 2014.

Granados Arias petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals denying her applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. The Seventh Circuit holds that substantial evidence supports the Board’s decision and denies the petition.

Decided 05/31/23

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