(1)The Board must examine de novo whether the facts found by the immigration judge satisfy all of the statutory elements of asylum as a matter of law.
(2) The Board should not accept the parties’ stipulations. Unless it affirms without opinion, the Board should meaningfully review each element of an asylum claim before affirming or ordering a grant of asylum.
(3) Even if an applicant is a member of a cognizable particular social group and has suffered persecution, an asylum claim should be denied if the harm inflicted or threatened by the persecutor is not “on account of” the alien’s membership in that group.
(4) An alien’s membership in a particular social group cannot be “incidental, tangential, or subordinate to the persecutor’s motivation . . . [for] why the persecutor sought to inflict harm.” Personal animus or retribution generally does not support eligibility for asylum.