Aguirre-Cervantez v. INS: 9th Circuit Grants En Banc Review of Domestic Violence Asylum Case

IMMIGRATION LAW & POLICY

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AGUIRRE-CERVANTEZ V. INS: 9TH CIRCUIT GRANTS EN BANC REVIEW OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ASYLUM CASE
Immigrants' Rights Update, Vol. 15, No. 7, Nov. 16, 2001

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has granted the petition for rehearing of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Aguirre-Cervantez v. INS, 242 F.3d 1169 (9th Cir. 2001). A three-judge panel of the court had ruled in this case that a Mexican petitioner who had been abused by her father was entitled to withholding of removal because she had been persecuted on account of her membership in the "particular social group" of her immediate family (see "9th Circuit Grants Withholding to Woman Who Was Abused by Father," Immigrants' Rights Update, May 10, 2001, p. 7). The INS rehearing petition contended that the panel should have remanded the case to the Board of Immigration Appeals to determine the issue of whether a person's family qualifies as a "social group" under the asylum statute. Before the panel ruled in the case, the INS had issued proposed regulations regarding the treatment of domestic violence in asylum cases, but it has not yet put them into effect (see "INS Issues Proposed and Final Asylum Regulations," Immigrants' Rights Update, Feb. 28, 2001, p. 1). The case will now be heard by the court en banc.

Aguirre-Cervantez v. INS, No. 99-70861 (9th Cir. Oct. 23, 2001).