United States Seventh Circuit

Petition for review a denial of Kenyan petitioner's application for asylum by the BIA is reversed where the Board wrongly held that a group must have social visibility to be a particular social group; Further question is whether the Kenyan government is either complicit in the tribe's persecution of defectors from the group or unable or unwilling to protect. In regards to petitioner's wife's derivative claim, BIA's denial on grounds that the the wife did not file within the one-year limit is reversed as the is reversed where the one-year deadline became relevant to her situation only much later when her spouse sought asylum.

Appellate Information

• Argued 04/07/2009
• Decided 08/20/2009
• Published 08/20/2009

Judges

• POSNER, Circuit Judge., Before POSNER, RIPPLE, and WOOD, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Matthew L. Hoppock (argued), McCrummen Immigration Law Group, North Kansas City, MO, for Petitioners.


• For Appellees:
  
• Jocelyn Wright (argued), Department of Justice, Civil Division, Immigration Litigation, Washington, DC, for Respondent.