The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) recently remanded
an asylum case to the Immigration Judge with instructions to accept the
asserted “particular social group” of individuals suffering from mental illness
who are indigent and lack family support.
The respondent’s asylum claim was based upon his fear of
persecution in Ghana due to his mental illness, which he described as bipolar
disorder. He contended he would be
unable to obtain the necessary medication to control his mental illness. The Immigration Judge found that the respondent’s
bipolar disorder was an immutable characteristic, but that the elements of
indigency and lack of family support were not.
The IJ’s findings were contradictory in that he found that individuals
with mental illness in Ghana are subjected to abuse that rises to the level of
persecution, but that the respondent did not show a reasonable likelihood of
suffering from persecution were he to return to Ghana.
The BIA remanded with instructions for the IJ to accept
the stated particular social group and to allow testimony from the respondent’s
psychiatrist and other documentary materials that were relevant to the asylum
application. For more information or to access this unpublished decision, click here.
