In a recent decision denying asylum to a Salvadoran woman being stalked by gang members, the Board of Immigration Appeals — the highest administrative body for interpreting U.S. immigration law — found that under U.S. law, her claim that Salvadoran women constitute a group of people at risk of persecution was “overbroad and insufficiently particular to be cognizable.”

The foundation of refugee law — both internationally and in the U.S. — is that asylum should be provided to a person with a well-founded fear of being persecuted on any of five grounds: race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or “membership in a particular social group.” This last category is intended to protect people similarly exposed to persecution as the other four groups because of immutable characteristics that

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