Case Explained: AVALOS PERDOMO V. BLANCHE

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Filed: 2026-07-07

The Ninth Circuit denied the petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ order dismissing an appeal from an Immigration Judge’s denial of asylum and withholding of removal. The court held that it lacked jurisdiction to consider the petitioner’s claim because she failed to exhaust administrative remedies as required by 8 U.S.C. § 1252(d)(1). Under Ninth Circuit precedent, exhaustion requires that a non-constitutional legal claim be raised before the BIA with sufficient specificity to put the agency on notice of the issue being challenged. The court found that the petitioner did not meet this standard because she advanced a new particular social group for the first time on appeal—”Salvadoran women who have been victims of domestic violence they are unable to leave”—whereas she had previously asserted different grounds before the Immigration Judge and the BIA, including “females in El Salvador who have been raped and beaten” and claims based on “sexual abuse.” Because the petitioner failed to propose or defend the specific group now asserted during the administrative proceedings, the court treated the claim as unexhausted and denied the petition without addressing the merits of the asylum claim.

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