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 cannot be changed or beliefs so fundamental they should not be required to change them.

There are precedents in both U.S. and international law for treating women as a “particular social group.” In

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