CHICAGO - The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals today found that a Chicago resident seeking asylum in the United States to avoid undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM) in Nigeria was denied a fair hearing and should have the opportunity to have her case reviewed by an immigration judge. The court said that the immigration judge who denied the woman's case relied too heavily on country reports from the U.S. State Department.

"While it is true that most woman subjected to FGM are victimized as children, some older women also are threatened with this horrid procedure, which continues even where it has been outlawed" said Chuck Roth, director of litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Center. "Today's Seventh Circuit decision is a clear message to the immigration court that it must not place undue reliance on a single source, such as the State Department country reports, but look to the asylum seeker's individual circumstances and all of the evidence presented."

Beatrice Oyekunle, fled Nigeria when she was 39 years old because her husband's family threatened to circumcise her following the birth of the couple's first son. The immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals originally denied Ms. Oyekunle's asylum claim, saying that State Department country reports only provided evidence of FGM practice against girls.

"The Board [of Immigration Appeals] remarked that the country report does not support the petitioner's claim of a well-founded fear of persecution, but what the Board should have said was that the report has little if any bearing on the case," wrote Judge Richard Posner.

The decision offers some protection for other adult women who face deportation into situations where they will be forced to suffer FGM. The decision also is the federal courts' latest criticism of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which has faced substantial criticism since a 2003 reorganization by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft.  Since May, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned two other BIA decisions on issues related to illogical consideration of State Department country reports.

The National Immigrant Justice Center, a partner of Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights, provides direct legal services to and advocates for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers through policy reform, impact litigation, and public education.