Justice Delayed is Justice Denied: The Real Significance of Matter of A-R-C-G-

Abstract

Introduction ............................................................................................................... 71 I.The Particular Social Group Requirement .............................................................. 73 II.The Board’s Evolving Treatment of Women as a Particular Social Group ........... 74 A. The Complexities of the Particular Social Group Requirement ............. 74 B. The Board’s New Treatment of Women as a Particular Social Group in Matter of A-R-C-G................................................................ 76 III.A Critique of the Board’s New Treatment of Domestic Violence Asylum Claims ............................................................................................................ 78 A. Inconsistency with Domestic and International Legal Norms ............... 78 1. The Federal Courts .......................................................................... 78 2. The Department of Justice ............................................................... 80 3. Other Countries: Canada and the United Kingdom ......................... 80 4. Other International Sources ............................................................. 81 a. 1951 Convention, the 1967 Protocol, and the Refugee Act of 1980 ..................................................................................... 81 b. UNHCR Interpretive Guidance for a Gendered “Particular Social Group” ........................................................................... 82 B. Insensitivity to Domestic Realities ........................................................ 84 C. Irrelevance of “Floodgate” Concern ...................................................... 86 1. Asylum Law was Designed for Massive Groups of People ............ 86 2. What About the Other Requirements to Receive Asylum? ............. 87 3. Where is the Flood? ......................................................................... 88 D. The IJ Inconsistency Problem—Adjudicating Domestic Violence Asylum Fails Domestic-Violence Victims ............................................ 89 E. Recommendations for the Future ........................................................... 90 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 91