Fiadjoe v. Attorney General of the United States

411 F.3d 135 (2005)

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Fiadjoe v. Attorney General of the United States

United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
411 F.3d 135 (2005)

Facts

In 1989, Lorraine Fiadjoe (defendant) entered the United States from Ghana, and the attorney general (plaintiff) initiated deportation proceedings before an immigration judge (IJ). At the proceedings, Fiadjoe testified that she fled Ghana because her father held her as a slave between 1978 and 1989. Fiadjoe testified her father was a priest in the Trokosi religion and he subjected her to physical beatings and frequent rapes pursuant to the tenets of the Trokosi religion. Fiadjoe testified that her aunt and her grandmother asked the local police to help her, but the police refused to intervene in a domestic dispute. Fiadjoe testified that in 1996, she met a man, Ahmed Kublano, and fled Ghana for Nigeria with Kublano. Fiadjoe testified that she had to return to Ghana with Kublano and that when she returned to Ghana, her father beat her and poured boiling water over her for disobeying him. Fiadjoe testified that when she became pregnant with Kublano’s child in 2000, her father beat her until she suffered a miscarriage. Fiadjoe testified that her father then killed Kublano when he came to visit Fiadjoe in her father’s house. Fiadjoe testified that she fled her father’s house after he murdered Kublano and that a family friend helped her flee to Canada. At the proceedings, Kathleen Jansen, Fiadjoe’s psychologist, testified that Fiadjoe feared returning to Ghana and to her father. The IJ rendered a decision on the record and in a written decision, denying Fiadjoe’s claim for asylum. The IJ found Fiadjoe was not credible as a witness due to inconsistencies in her testimony and the testimony of Jansen. The IJ also concluded that Trokosi was not a religion but a religious cult and that Trokosi sexual slaves did not constitute a particular social group under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Fiadjoe appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which affirmed the IJ decision. Fiadjoe appealed to the Third Circuit, reasserting her application for asylum and withholding of deportation.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Debevoise, J.)

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