{"id":526,"date":"2017-05-25T10:27:51","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T17:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hillandpiibe.com\/?p=526\/"},"modified":"2024-08-07T13:10:47","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T20:10:47","slug":"new-bia-case-family-particular-social-group-asylum-persecution-hatfields-versus-mccoys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hillandpiibe.com\/en\/legal-analysis\/2017\/05\/25\/new-bia-case-family-particular-social-group-asylum-persecution-hatfields-versus-mccoys\/","title":{"rendered":"New BIA Case on &#8220;Family&#8221; as a Particular Social Group for Asylum Persecution: Hatfields Versus McCoys?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s decision from the BIA is a head-scratcher.\u00a0 In\u00a0<em>Matter of L-E-A-<\/em>, the BIA examined the claim of a man who was persecuted because his father owned a grocery store.\u00a0 The persecutors were members of\u00a0<em>La Familia Michoacana<\/em>, a criminal cartel in Mexico.\u00a0 The father refused them permission to sell drugs in his store.\u00a0 Cartel members then asked L-E-A- if he would sell drugs in the store for them, and he refused.\u00a0 The following week, the cartel attempted to kidnap him but he escaped and fled to the U.S.\u00a0 They contacted the father and claimed they were holding L-E-A-, but the father confirmed that this was untrue.<\/p>\n<p>Asylum cases will only protect those fearing persecution motivated by five grounds: race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group (such as family), and political opinion.\u00a0 The BIA stated that the key issue was whether L-E-A-\u2018s harm happened\u00a0<em>because<\/em>\u00a0of his membership in his family.\u00a0 It would seem clear that the cartel approached and threatened him because he was related to his father, the storeowner whom they wished to control.\u00a0 The cartel even lied to the father that they had kidnapped his son\u2014why involve the son unless they wanted to leverage and influence the father?<\/p>\n<p>However, the BIA went in a different direction which actually seems to double-up the asylum grounds of protection.\u00a0 First it compared family persecution to the infamous case of Czar Nicholas II, whose family was executed after a political revolution in Russia.\u00a0 \u00a0The BIA said this is a \u201cclassic example\u201d of persecutors who intended to overcome the family.\u00a0 The BIA also looked at other successful claims for \u201cfamily persecution,\u201d which had motivation for political and\/or ethnic reasons. \u00a0These comparisons seem to suggest a double-layer of motivation: first target the family for a ground already protected by asylum law (political or ethnic reasons), and then see if this targeting extended to family members.<\/p>\n<p>For L-E-A-, the BIA concluded that the cartel targeted him because \u201che was in a position to provide access to the store,\u201d and to enrich them, and not because of his family membership.\u00a0 However, this seems nonsensical because his familial relations gave him access to the store; moreover, the cartel tried to leverage the father by claiming it kidnapped his son.\u00a0 \u00a0The BIA required \u201canimus against the family . . . based on their biological ties, historical status, or other features unique to that family unit.\u201d\u00a0 I would argue that L-E-A-\u2018s family had a unique feature: ownership of a grocery store, and refusal to allow the cartel to conduct criminal acts at that store.\u00a0 Plus, what does \u201canimus based on biological ties\u201d even mean?<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s holding seems to require either a double layer of motivation already protected by asylum law, or some kind of Hatfields\/McCoys longstanding personal dispute.\u00a0 If I were taking this case on appeal to the Circuit Courts, I would argue that this is an impermissible interpretation of the legal standard.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/eoir\/page\/file\/969456\/download\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matter of L-E-A-, 27 I&amp;N Dec. 40, Interim Decis. #3893 (BIA 2017)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s decision from the BIA is a head-scratcher.\u00a0 In\u00a0Matter of L-E-A-, the BIA examined the claim of a man who was persecuted because his father owned a grocery store.\u00a0 The persecutors were members of\u00a0La Familia Michoacana, a criminal cartel in Mexico.\u00a0 The father refused them permission to sell drugs in his store.\u00a0 Cartel members then [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":878,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asylum-withholding-convention-against-torture","category-legal-analysis"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>New BIA Case on &quot;Family&quot; 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