The Ninth Circuit has determined that “female nurses” may be a particular social group for asylum purposes. “In contrast to Acosta, Plancarte cannot avoid compulsion by the cartel simply by changing jobs, because even if she ceased employment as a nurse, she would still be a nurse. Plancarte has received specialized medical training and has a professional license as a nurse. The cartel targeted Plancarte precisely because of her specialized nursing skills. It threatened her and her family with torture and death to force her to use those skills to provide medical treatment to the cartel.”
The full text of Plancarte Sauceda v. Garland can be found here: https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/08/20/19-73312.pdf
An amended opinion can be found here:
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2022/01/14/19-73312.pdf