Board Decision Will Result in Women and Girls Being Returned to Persecution
Washington, D.C. – Today, the Board of Immigration Appeals published a decision, Matter of K-E-S-G-, finding that a particular social group defined by the individual’s sex or sex and nationality did not meet the Board’s requirements for constituting a particular social group and denied the individual asylum. While the decision hinges on complicated analysis of the particular social group ground and lengthy related caselaw, the impact could not be clearer. This decision will again throw asylum decision-making into chaos and result in the return of refugees to persecution. Human Rights First strongly condemns this latest assault on the rights of people seeking asylum.
“Many of our clients, like Ms. K-E-S-G-, have fled horrific, systemic abuse clearly motivated by their gender for which there is no protection offered by their governments,” said Farida Chehata Director of Refugee Representation at Human Rights First. “For decades, U.S. courts have granted asylum to survivors of gender-based violence based on their membership in a particular social group and today’s ruling attempts to upend that long established precedent. We saw similar unlawful attempts under the first Trump administration to deny protection to women and girls, which were ultimately reversed. We will continue to represent and fight for the correct interpretation of the refugee definition to ensure that those fleeing this type of persecution can find safety in our country.”
This decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals, an administrative body under the authority of Attorney General Bondi, comes at a time globally when women and girls, and others, are fleeing heinous abuse and persecution based on their gender. Human Rights First released a recent briefing report confirming the conditions in Afghanistan that raise dire concerns for the safety for many Afghan women.
One of our current clients who suffered rape by a family member, followed by an unrelated brutal kidnapping and multiple rapes by members of a non-state armed group has spent nearly seven years awaiting adjudication of her asylum case and is now awaiting her final hearing. She, along with many of our other clients, may now be foreclosed from asylum, due to this misguided decision.
