Original Date Announced

In Matter of A-C-A-A-, AG Barr directs the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), when reviewing an asylum case, to examine the facts found by the immigration judge and determine de novo whether all of the statutory elements of asylum have been satisfied as a matter of law. The BIA may no longer accept the parties’ stipulations to, or rely upon their failures to address, any of the particular elements of asylum -- including the elements of a particular social group. Unless the BIA is issuing an affirmance without opinion (AWO), then it must review each element of an asylum claim before affirming a grant or reversing a denial.

Barr also holds that, even if an asylum applicant is a member of a cognizable social group and has suffered persecution, the asylum claim should be denied if there is no showing of nexus between the harm and the applicant's particular social group. An asylum applicant's membership in a particular social group cannot be “incidental, tangential, or subordinate to the persecutor’s motivation.” Persecution that results from personal animus or retribution does not support eligibility for asylum.

[ID #1134]