Asylum Denied to Victim of Domestic Violence

IMMIGRATION LAW & POLICY

Asylum, Refugee, and Other
Protected Statuses

IN RE R–A–: ASYLUM DENIED TO VICTIM OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Immigrants' Rights Update, Vol. 13, No. 4, June 30, 1999

In a recent decision, the Board of Immigration Appeals found that a Guatemalan woman who was repeatedly physically and sexually abused by her husband does not qualify for asylum because the abuse was not committed on account of her political opinion or membership in a particular social group.

The respondent had been granted asylum by the immigration judge who found, in part, that the respondent was persecuted as a member of a particular social group, namely Guatemalan women who have been involved intimately with Guatemalan male companions who believe that women are to live under male domination. The BIA declined to recognize such a social group. It concluded that the respondent failed to show that victims of spousal abuse view themselves as members of this group or that male oppressors see their victimized companions as part of this group. As such, the BIA held, the respondent was not persecuted on account of membership in this group.

The IJ also had granted the respondent asylum due to persecution on account of political opinion. In particular, the IJ found that as a result of the respondent’s resistance to her husband’s violence, the respondent’s husband imputed to her the belief that women should not be dominated by men and abused her because of the political opinion he believed her to hold. The BIA also rejected this claim. It noted that the victim must offer some evidence, direct or circumstantial, that it was the victim’s political opinion that motivated the persecutor. The BIA found that the respondent’s resistance to abuse was insufficient to demonstrate such motivation on the part of her husband and the record lacked other evidence showing that the respondent’s husband attributed a political view to her and then harmed her because of that view. Accordingly, the BIA concluded that the respondent also failed to prove she was persecuted on account of political opinion.

In re R–A–, Int. Dec. 3403 (BIA June 11, 1999).