Decision date: 2020-10-14

Holding that agency failed to address key unrebutted evidence and that Petitioner showed a nexus between her past persecution and family membership, thus entitling her to asylum. The Court ruled that once Petitioner demonstrated that she faced harm designed to pressure her family members to act, her family membership was at least one central reason for the persecution, even though the persecutors later extorted Petitioner.

Publication Status: Published

Case judge: Quattlebaum, Richardson, Thacker

Decision: Hernandez-Cartagena v. Barr, 977 F.3d 316 (4th Cir. 2020)