The BIA further explained how particularity requires the group to have discrete, definable boundaries.Ms. C-G-‘s Asylum CaseThe BIA’s recent decision in Matter of A-R-C-G-, 26 I. & N. Dec. 388 (BIA 2014) involved a Guatemalan woman whose husband beat her, raped her, broke her nose, and threw paint thinner on her, burning her breast. She called the police multiple times, but they refused to “interfere” in her marriage.

The asylum applicant in Matter of A-B- claimed eligibility for asylum based on her membership in the particular social group of “El Salvadoran women who are unable to leave their domestic relationships where they have children in common” with their partners. In the decision, the former Attorney General reversed the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) grant of asylum to the applicant, and overruled the precedential decision of Matter of A-R-C-G-, 26 I&N Dec. 388 (BIA 2014), upon which the BIA relied to grant the case. Although the underlying legal framework for asylum eligibility remained in place, this decision created numerous hurdles for victims of domestic violence and others who have faced persecution by private actors.