United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit No. 18-2100 JACELYS MIGUELINA DE PENA-PANIAGUA, Petitioner, v. WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General, Respondent. PETITION FOR REVIEW OF AN ORDER OF THE BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS Before Howard, Chief Judge, Kayatta and Barron, Circuit Judges. Jonathan Ng, with whom Robert F. Ley and Law Offices of Johanna Herrero were on brief, for petitioner. Eunice Lee, with whom Blaine Bookey, Anne Dutton, and Karen Musalo were on brief, for Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, amicus curiae. Sheila I. Velez Martinez, Linda Hamilton, Nahla Kamaluddin, and University of Pittsburgh School of Law Immigration Law Clinic, on brief for Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Leadership Conference of Women Religious, National Council of Jewish Women, and Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, amici curiae. Anjum Gupta and Mary Holper, on brief for Immigration Law Professors, amicus curiae. John Willshire Carrera, Zachary A. Albun, Nancy Kelly, Sabrineh Ardalan, Deborah Anker, Steven H. Schulman, Martine E. Cicconi, and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, on brief for Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program, amicus curiae. Richard W. Mark, Amer S. Ahmed, Indraneel Sur, Timothy Sun, Grace E. Hart, Chris Jones, and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, on brief for Twenty-Nine Former Immigration Judges and Members of the Board of Immigration Appeals, amicus curiae. Christina P. Greer, Trial Attorney, Office of Immigration Litigation, U.S. Department of Justice, with whom Joseph H. Hunt, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice, and Terri J. Scadron, Assistant Director, Office of Immigration Litigation, were on brief, for respondent. April 24, 2020 KAYATTA, Circuit Judge. In this case we confront the perplexing question of whether the requirements for establishing membership in a particular social group in support of a request for asylum or withholding of removal categorically reject any group defined in material part as women "unable to leave" a domestic relationship. For the following reasons, we hold that there is no such categorical rule precluding any and all applicants from successfully relying upon such a group in support of a request for asylum or withholding of removal. I. A. Petitioner Jacelys Miguelina De Pena-Paniagua (De Pena), a native and citizen of the Dominican Republic, entered the United States without inspection in late 2013. Conceding removability, she sought asylum, withholding of removal under 8 U.S.C. ยง 1231(b)(3), and protection under Article 3 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture (CAT). De Pena alleges that Hanlet Rafael Arias Melo (Arias), her former domestic partner and the father of her son, abused her in the past, will abuse her in the future, and will remain undeterred by Dominican law enforcement authorities, who have been nonresponsive to her requests for help. According to De Pena, her mistreatment by Arias began with "verbal abuse and controlling behavior." Once she became pregnant, the abuse worsened in form and degree. In her - 3 - declaration, De Pena stated that Arias raped her five times during her pregnancy in 2006. After one incident ...
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