Gonzalez-Medina

Porfiria Gonzalez-Medina, a native and citizen of Mexico, petitions for review of the decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirming an immigration judge’s (“IJ”) final order of removal, denying her claims for asylum and withholding of removal. In her petition, Gonzalez-Medina raises two issues of first impression: whether applying the one-year filing deadline to her asylum application violates the Equal Protection Clause, and whether domestic abuse that occurs in the United States can constitute past persecution. Although we are very sympathetic to her plight, we are unpersuaded by Gonzalez-Medina’s legal arguments and we deny the petition.

I. Background

Gonzalez-Medina entered the United States from Mexico in January 2001, to join her husband, also a Mexican citizen who was living illegally in the United States. About a year after Gonzalez-Medina arrived, her husband began abusing her. On several occasions he punched and kicked her, leaving bruises that took weeks to heal. He once whipped her with a television cable until her body was covered with lacerations. At one point, Gonzalez-Medina told her husband that she wanted a divorce. He threatened to…