United States Second Circuit

Petitions for review of a BIA decision finding petitioners ineligible for withholding of removal based on claims of genital mutilations which they suffered previously in Guinea are granted in part in part where the BIA erred in its application of the withholding of removal regulatory framework to female genital mutilation claims. Under the governing regulations, the fact that an applicant has undergone female genital mutilation in the past cannot, in and of itself, be used to rebut the presumption that her life or freedom will be threatened in the future.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/11/2008
• Published 06/11/2008

Judges

• Before:  STRAUB, POOLER, and SOTOMAYOR, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Ronald S. Salomon, New York, NY, for Petitioner Salimatou Bah., Theodore Vialet, New York, NY, for Petitioners Mariama Diallo and Haby Diallo., Ana C. Reyes (Robin E. Jacobsohn, on the brief, Christopher N. Manning, of counsel), Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae Center for Gender and Refugee Studies.


• For Appellees:
  
• Michael C. Heyse & Jessica E. Sherman, Trial Attorneys (Peter D. Keisler, Assistant Attorney General, Jeffrey S. Bucholtz & Gregory G. Katsas, Acting Assistant Attorneys General, Mary Jane Candaux & Michelle Latour, Assistant Directors, Joshua Braunstein, Cindy S. Ferrier, Lyle D. Jentzer, & Margaret Perry, Senior Litigation Counsel, Stacey I. Young, Trial Attorney, Ali Manuchehry, Law Clerk, on the briefs), Civil Division, Office of Immigration Litigation, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Respondents.