Zelaya v. Holder’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 federal appellate ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 39 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The critical problem with Zelaya’s proposed social group for purposes of seeking asylum is that it fails the BIA’s particularity requirement. First, as we have previously recognized, opposition to gangs is an amorphous characteristic providing neither an adequate benchmark for determining group membership nor embodying a concrete trait that would readily identify a person as possessing such a characteristic. Resisting gang recruitment is similarly amorphous, and the fact that Zelaya’s conduct in resisting recruitment included complaining twice to the police adds little to the particularity equation in the face of the common sense proposition that MS-13 would look unfavorably upon anyone who complained about its harassment tactics to the police. Similarly, the concept that a person who is victimized by one gang member more than by other gang members somehow serves to particularize all such persons into a targeted social group is just nonsensical.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Temu v. Holder · Pedro Salmeron-Salmeron v. Jefferson Sessions III

2. “The testimony of the applicant, if credible, may be sufficient to sustain the burden of proof without corroboration.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. CABRERA VASQUEZ v. Barr · Alvarez Lagos v. Barr