Yayeshwork Abay and Burhan Amare v. John Ashcroft, United States Attorney General and Immigration and Naturalization Service

CONCURRENCE

I agree with the majority that the prospect of female genital mutilation (FGM) may indeed give rise to a “well-founded fear” of persecution, and I agree with the majority that the Immigration Judge’s efforts to resolve the claims of the daughter (Amare) and the mother (Abay) raise as many questions as they answer. On this record, I thus agree that the Immigration Judge’s decision cannot be affirmed.

I concur in the judgment rather than in the opinion because I fear that the majority’s opinion accepts two propositions in this area that current law does not support: (1) that women or…