The Sixth Circuit has remanded a domestic violence based asylum claim, in which an IJ found that the applicant had suffered past persecution on account of a protected ground, but that the presumption of future harm had been rebutted because the applicant had been able to leave her abuser. The court noted that that “physical separation does not necessarily indicate that a relationship has ended—if it did, then any woman who escaped her persecutor and then filed an application for asylum on these grounds would be denied.” Moreover, during the year that she lived apart from her abuser, he continued to threaten her and their children with serious harm. While the applicant has since filed for divorce, her abuser refuses to consent to the divorce unless she relinquishes custody of their children to him.
In a footnote, the Sixth Circuit noted that it found the rationale of Grace v. Whitaker, which abrogated Matter of A-B-, to be persuasive, and as such, would likely find that the Matter of A-R-C-G- (which defined particular social groups as they relate to domestic violence) remains good law.
The full text of Juan Antonio v. Barr can be found here:
https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/20a0156p-06.pdf