The petitioner, Adelaide Abankwah, entered the United States on Mar. 29, 1997, using a falsified Ghanaian passport and a U.S. visa.  Following Abankwah’s apprehension at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, the Immigration and Naturalization Service commenced deportation proceedings against her.  She then applied for asylum and withholding of deportation on the grounds that because she had engaged in premarital sex, her tribe would force her to undergo FGM should she be returned to Ghana.  Both the immigration judge and BIA denied her applications, ruling that she had failed to establish that her fears are objectively reasonable.

The Second Circuit disagreed, ruling that Abankwah "has presented . . . strong evidence to demonstrate that her fear of FGM is objectively reasonable" and that it is sufficient to meet the objective element required by the test for well-founded fear of persecution.  Accordingly, the court reversed the BIA’s finding that Abankwah is ineligible for asylum and remanded for further proceedings consistent with its opinion.  Her application for withholding of deportation, which the BIA denied based on its rejection of her asylum application, was also remanded for further proceedings.