## Facts

- The respondent, A-B-, is a citizen of El Salvador who alleged years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse by her ex-husband, including abuse continuing after separation and divorce.
- She fled to the United States and sought asylum based on persecution by a private actor.
- She asserted membership in a proposed particular social group (PSG) of “El Salvadoran women who are unable to leave their domestic relationships where they have children in common” with their partners.
- An Immigration Judge denied relief, finding (among other things) lack of credibility, no cognizable PSG, no nexus, and insufficient proof that the Salvadoran government was unable or unwilling to protect her.
- The Board of Immigration Appeals granted relief in an unpublished decision, treating the proposed PSG as similar to the group recognized in Matter of A-R-C-G-.
- The case was certified to the Attorney General multiple times, producing a sequence of decisions addressing PSG cognizability, private-actor persecution, and nexus.

## Issues

1. Whether Matter of A-B- I (2018) and Matter of A-B- II (2021) should continue to govern adjudication of asylum claims involving private-actor violence and PSG-based theories.
2. What precedent immigration judges and the Board should apply, pending rulemaking, when evaluating PSG claims and the “unable or unwilling to control” requirement for persecution by non-state actors.

## Decision

- The Attorney General vacated Matter of A-B-, 27 I. & N. Dec. 316 (A.G. 2018), and Matter of A-B-, 28 I. & N. Dec. 199 (A.G. 2021), in their entirety.
- Immigration judges and the Board were instructed not to follow A-B- I or A-B- II in pending or future cases.
- Pending rulemaking, adjudicators were directed to apply pre-A-B- I precedent, including Matter of A-R-C-G-, 26 I. & N. Dec. 388 (BIA 2014).

## Legal Principles

- PSG and nexus analysis in domestic-violence and other private-actor cases must be conducted under pre-2018 precedent rather than under the categorical or restrictive gloss associated with A-B- I and A-B- II.
- Persecution may be inflicted by non-state actors when the government is “unable or unwilling to control” them, consistent with longstanding Board precedent.
- The vacatur restored the preexisting decisional framework while the Department pursued rulemaking on PSG-related standards.

## Conclusion

Matter of A-B- (A.G. 2021) nullified the prior Attorney General decisions that had restricted many private-actor and domestic-violence asylum theories and directed immigration adjudicators to apply pre-2018 precedent, including A-R-C-G-, until new regulations are issued.


Matter of A-B-, 28 I. & N. Dec. 307 (A.G. 2021)