Asylum can be granted to noncitizens if they have a well-founded fear of persecution on account of their membership in a particular social group. But in recent years the Board of Immigration Appeals and the Attorney General have imposed increasingly complex requirements for proving a “social group.” In 2018, the Board of Immigration Appeals announced a policy that asylum applicants must give the Immigration Judge an “exact delineation” of the particular social group that their case is based on. CLINIC joined with six other immigration legal services providers to explain to the Third Circuit how a strict application of the Board’s rule is unfair to the majority of asylum applicants who do not have a lawyer to “delineate” a “social group” on their behalf.

UPDATE: Victory! After this brief was filed, the government agreed to remand the case to the Board of Immigration Appeals for further consideration.