Opinion ID: 625002
Heading Depth: 6
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Particular social group - particularity

Text: The particularity element of particular social group requires that the proposed group “have particular and well-defined boundaries.” Matter of S-E-G-, 24 I. & N. Dec. at 582. “The essence of the ‘particularity’ requirement, therefore, is whether the proposed group can accurately be described in a manner sufficiently distinct that the group would be recognized, in the society in question, as a discrete class of persons.” Id. at 584. The BIA has rejected groups defined by terms such as “affluence” or “wealth” as too subjective to meet the particularity requirement. Matter of A-M-E- & J-G-U-, 24 I. & N. Dec. 69, 76 (BIA 2007). However, in Barrientos, we overturned a BIA decision that rejected the trait of having resisted gang recruitment as insufficiently particularized. 658 F.3d at 1231. We held that “the specific trait of having resisted recruitment is not so vague. . . . [H]aving resisted gang recruitment can be a particularly defined trait.” Id. Because that trait, as well as gender traits and age traits, are “susceptible to easy 12 definition,” we determined that the class of “Salvadoran women between the ages of 12 and 25 who have resisted gang recruitment” did not fail for lack of particularity. Id. Barrientos remains the only Tenth Circuit case defining particularity, but it indicates that social groups with clearly definable limiting traits can generally achieve particularity.