Perdomo v. Holder (PUB)
**PSG**
Petitioner, a female Guatemalan, argues that she has a well-founded fear of persecution based on her membership in the particular social group of women in Guatemala who are at high risk of femicide. The BIA dismissed Perdomo’s appeal solely on the ground that “all women in Guatemala” could not constitute a cognizable social group, without reaching the question of whether Perdomo had demonstrated a nexus between her membership in that group and her fear of persecution. However, case law in the Ninth Circuit has clearly acknowledged that women in a particular country, regardless of ethnicity or clan membership, could form a particular social group. The BIA erred by failing to apply both prongs of the Hernandez-Montiel’s definition of a particular social group to Perdomo’s claim that women in Guatemala constitute a PSG. Its decision is also inconsistent with its own opinion in Matter of Acosta. Remanded for the BIA to determine in the first instance whether women in Guatemala constitute a particular social group.
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2010/07/12/06-71652.pdf
newimmigrationcases
