Gatimi v. Holder

Francis Gatimi, his wife, and his daughter (defendants) applied for asylum after arriving in the United States from Kenya, and Attorney General Holder (plaintiff) began deportation proceedings. In deportation proceedings before an immigration judge (IJ), Gatimi testified that he belonged to the Kikuyu tribe and that, in 1995, he joined a Kikuyu political and religious organization, the Mungiki. Documentary evidence entered during the deportation proceedings indicated that the Mungiki required women to undergo clitorectomies and that the Mungiki had a reputation for violence toward defectors. Gatimi testified that in 1999, he defected from the Mungiki and that the group responded by raiding his house and killing one of his servants. Gatimi testified that the Mungiki told him during the raid that he must produce his wife so the group could perform a clitorectomy or the group would kill him. Gatimi testified that the Mungiki also tortured him, killed his family pets, burned two vehicles, and threatened to gouge out his eyes. The IJ found that Gatimi suffered mistreatment rather than persecution and denied the asylum application. Gatimi appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). The BIA denied the asylum application of Gatimi, finding that defectors from Mungiki did not constitute a particular social group. Gatimi appealed to the Seventh Circuit, reasserting his application for asylum.