Glenda Alvarado-Paz v. Todd Blanche

── Glenda Alvarado-Paz v. Todd Blanche ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Date: June 01, 2026 Category: General USCA4 Appeal: 25-1119 Doc: 51 Filed: 06/01/2026 Pg: 1 of 20 PUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 25-1119 GLENDA ALVARADO-PAZ; J.P.A., Petitioners, v. TODD BLANCHE, Acting Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. Argued: March 17, 2026 Decided: June 1, 2026 Before NIEMEYER, AGEE, and RICHARDSON, Circuit Judges. Petition for review granted in part and denied in part; vacated and remanded by published opinion. Judge Agee wrote the opinion, in which Judge Niemeyer and Judge Richardson joined. ARGUED: Brendan Halvor Ekern Connors, HOLLAND & KNIGHT, LLP, Washington, D.C., for Petitioners. Linda Y. Cheng, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. ON BRIEF: Zachary P. Lundgren, HOLLAND AND KNIGHT LLP, Washington, D.C., for Petitioners. Brett A. Shumate, Assistant Attorney General, Matthew B. George, Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. USCA4 Appeal: 25-1119 Doc: 51 Filed: 06/01/2026 Pg: 2 of 20 AGEE, Circuit Judge: Glenda Alvarado-Paz and her minor child, J.P.A., petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ final order of removal based on the denial of their application for asylum and withholding of removal under the Immigration & Nationality Act (“INA”) and withholding of removal under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). For the reasons below, we grant the petition in part and deny it in part, vacate the agency’s removal order, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. I. The record developed before the immigration judge shows that Alvarado-Paz, a native and citizen of El Salvador, fled to the United States in 2016 after her father, Fabian Alvarado Parada (“Fabian”), threatened to kill her. Alvarado-Paz testified that Fabian is extremely violent, having physically and psychologically abused her and her immediate family, which included her mother, Porfiria Paz Martinez (“Porfiria”), and six siblings. Fabian was especially violent toward Porfiria, beating her regularly and putting a machete to her throat as he threatened to kill her and her children. After Porfiria inherited land from her family, Fabian threatened more violence to secure her agreement to deed the property to him. Porfiria also witnessed Fabian kill his stepfather with a machete, after which he threatened to kill her if she told anyone. Fabian wasn’t the only violent member of the family. In June 2016, Fabian’s foster brother murdered Porfiria, shooting her at her home while she was caring for J.P.A. and another child. When Alvarado-Paz learned of her mother’s death, she went to Porfiria’s 2 USCA4 Appeal: 25-1119 Doc: 51 Filed: 06/01/2026 Pg: 3 of 20 home, where law enforcement and Fabian were already on scene. Alvarado-Paz accused Fabian of ordering his foster brother to kill her mother. Fabian told her to be quiet and “grabbed his machete,” which Alvarado-Paz understood to mean that he “was capable of killing me at that moment” “even though there were a lot of cops there.” J.A. 148. In the days following her mother’s death, Alvarado-Paz and her siblin