Court Rules Family Murders Count as Persecution in Landmark Asylum Case
The Seventh Circuit, led by a Notre Dame Law School professor, says threats and killings of relatives can establish direct persecution—even if the asylum seeker herself was never physically harmed.
WASHINGTON —In a major asylum ruling, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has held that years of lethal threats and violence against a petitioner’s relatives can constitute direct persecution of the petitioner, even if the petitioner herself was never physically harmed.
In Mejia-Hernandez v. Bondi, decided on July 17, a unanimous panel — Judge Kenneth Ripple (a Notre Dame Law School professor … Go Irish!) writing, joined by Judges David Hamilton and Jill Pryor — granted a Honduran woman’s petition for review and partially overturned a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). The case has broad implications for family-based asylum claims and the evidentiary threshold for establishing persecution.