Interim Decision #1279 

MATrER OF DAD.AEIS 

In DEPORTATION Proceedings 

A-15477411 

Decided by Board April 18, 1963 

Physical persecution within the meaning of section 248(h), Immigration and 

Nationality Act, has not been established by a native and citizen of Greece 

on the basis of a claim of prosecution or other official opposition -which might 

result from his religions activities (proselytism) in Greece as a Jehovah's 

Witness. 

CHARGE! 

Order: Act of 1952—Section 241(a) (2) [8 U.S.O. 1251(a) (2)3—Remained 

longer. 

Respondent, a native and national of Greece who last entered the 

United States on July 15, 1960 as a nonimmigrant crewman, is 23 

years old and married to a citizen of the United States. He concedes 

&portability as charged. 

At the original hearing the special inquiry officer directed deportation to Germany, the country elected by respondent, with an alternate 

order of deportation to Greece. Respondent did not have counsel at 

that hearing but subsequently appealed through his present counsel. 

That appeal sought an adjudication of respondent's eligibility for 

withholding of deportation under section 243(h) of the Immigration 

and Nationality Act, although no application for such relief had been 

filed. Our order of July 11, 1962 directed reopening of the proceedings to afford respondent an opportunity to apply under the provisions 

of that section and to submit supporting evidence. 

The special inquiry officer, after further hearing, denied respondent's application for withholding of deportation and again ordered 

deportation to Germany or alternatively to Greece. Respondent 

appeals from the denial of the benefits of section 243(h). We concur 

in the conclusion of the special inquiry officer. 

Respondent testified that since arriving in this country he has 

become a member of Jehovah's Witnesses. Communications from 

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ministers of that sect corroborate such membership. The record contains a letter to respondent and his wife from the presiding minister of 

Jehovah's Witnesses in Greece, which inter alts states that section 1 

of the Greek Constitution provides that the dominant religion in 

Greece is the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ, that any other 

religion is free to perform its worship rites without hindrance under 

the protection of the laws, but proselytism and any other interference 

with the dominant religion is forbidden. A letter to respondent's 

wife from the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society sets forth that 

certain members of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Greece have been 

charged with proselytism and punished with imprisonment of up to 

five months and fines. A number of other Witnesses are reported to 

have been brought before the courts during the periods September 

through November 1961 and February through April 1962, but 

discharged. 

Respondent indicates that if returned to Greece he would go from 

door to door interpreting the Bible and delivering literature setting 

forth the tenets of Jehovah's Witnesses. He maintains that he would 

be subject to imprisonment for snob. activities. 

Respondent's counsel contends the special inquiry officer erred as a 

matter of law by failing to recognize that, under judicial and administrative precedents confinement on religious grounds constitutes 

physical persecution within the meaning of the statute. Blazina v. 

Bouchard, 286 F. 2d 507 (C.A. 3, 1961) cert. den. 366 U.S. 950 (1961) ; 

Kalatjis v. Rosenberg, 305 F. 2d 249 (CA. 9, 1962) ; Diminich v. 

Evenly, 299 F. 2d 244 (C.A. 2, 1961) cert. den. 369 U.S. 844 (1962), 

which refers to Matter of Sale, A-9555532 (1958). As we read the 

special inquiry officer's opinion, however, he does not rule out as a 

matter of law confinement on religious grounds as a possible instance 

of physical persecution. The special inquiry officer notes that the 

general freedom of religion in Greece is subject only to the limitation 

that proselytism for faiths other than the Eastern Orthodox is forbidden He notes also that respondent expects, if deported to Greece, 

to engage as a Jehovah's Witness in proselytism and to be arrested and 

possibly prosecuted in the courts for such proscribed activity. Weconsider the special inquiry officer ruled only that under these particular circumstances the arrest and confinement to which respondent may 

be subject would not constitute physical persecution despite the religious issue. 

In this country the proselytizing activities of Jehovah's Witnesses 

are held in general to come within the protection of the constitutional 

guarantees of freedom of religion, speech, and the press. Lovell v. 

Griffin, 303 U.S. 444 (1938) ; Murdock v. Commonwealth of Pennsyl253 
Interim Decision #1279 

vania, 319 U.S. 105 (1943) ; Martin v. Struthers, 319 U.S. 141 (1943) ; 

Nietmotko v. Maryland, 340 -U.S. 268 (1951). These rights are not 

absolute however. Schneider v. laving-ton, 308 U.S. 147 (1939). A 

few cases have upheld particular applications of the police power 

restricting such rights. Cow v. New Hampshire, 312 U.S. 569 (1941) ; 

Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 17.S. 5N (1942) ; People v_ Bohnke, 

287 N.Y. 154, 38 N.E. 2d 478 (1941), cert. den. 316 U.S. 667 (1942). 

The Supreme Court has said that the First Amendment has two 

aspects—freedom to believe and freedom to act, the first being absolute 

but the second subject to regulation for the protection of society. 

Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 303, 304 (1940). 

The Court ruled in „Murdock that a. nondiscriminatory tax on distribution of literature was invalid when applied against Jehovah's 

Witnesses. Martin v. Struthers invalidated an ordinance forbidding 

knocking on the door or ringing the doorbell of a residence in order to 

deliver a handbill as applied against handbills distributed on behalf of 

Jehovah's Witnesses. In Nietmotko denial of a request by Jehovah's 

Witnesses for a permit to hold a meeting in a public park was overruled where the denial appeared to be based not upon any valid exercise 

of the police power but upon arbitrary action on the part of the local 

officials. 

On the other hand, in Cow v. New Hampshire a statute requiring a 

permit and license fee for parades was held valid in a case involving 

Jehovah's Witnesses. Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire upheld a state 

statute applicable only to the use in a public place of words directly 

tending to cause a breach of the peace_ The speaker was a Jehovah's 

Witness who had been engaged in distributing literature of his sect 

on the street and addressing passers-by. He used the inflammatory 

words against the City Marshall after a, disturbance broke out. 

People v. Bohnke upheld an ordinance which prohibited, without prior 

consent of the occupants, entry by nonresidents of the community 

upon private residential property for certain purposes, including the 

distribution of pamphlets or other literature. Appellants were nonresident Jehovah's Witnesses distributing religious information. 

Thus in this country the right of Jehovah's Witnesses to proselyte 

is not without limitation. In Greece, however, that right appears to 

be nonexistent. Counsel for respondent urges us to adopt the standards in this country in determining whether the action of the Greek 

authorities against Jehovah's Witnesses constitutes physical persecution. Although at times particular aspects of questions arising under 

section 243(h) should be considered in the light of the standards 

in this country rather than those in the country in question, we do 

not believe the statute contemplates that unless aliens will enjoy 

within their own country the same type, degree, and extent of religious 

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and individual freedom they enjoy here deportation may be withheld 

on the grounds of impending physical persecution. Wherever possible, consistent with the purposes of the statute, considerable latitude 

should be extended to the foreign law. The Court of Appeals for the 

Third Circuit in Blaziena v. Bouch,ard (supra at 511, cited by respondent's counsel for another proposition) indicated that repugnance of a 

governmental policy to our own concepts of religious freedom cannot 

in itself justify our labeling actions taken under that policy as 

"physical persecution." 

The record does not reveal the specific facts underlying individual 

instances of prosecution in Greece of Jehovah's Witnesses. The letter 

from the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society describes only in a 

general way such prosecutions. It says that the members of the sect 

were charged with talking about the Bible to others or getting together 

in their own homes to discuss the Bible, and that, in some cases, false 

charges were brought against Witnesses who had done nothing. The 

Presiding Minister in Greece describes two convictions naming the 

Witnesses involved. Each received a fine of 2000 drachmas and probation for six months for displaying their religious literature plus imprisonment of two and a half months in one case and one month in 

the other. The particular circumstances upon which the prosecutions 

were based do not appear, however. 

We have considered the evidence in the light most favorable to 

respondent, assuming that the Jehovah's Witnesses in Greece who encountered police opposition were engaged in activities generally protected in this country and that prosecution under the Greek constitutional provision of members of the sect is widespread. We note, however, that the affidavit of a member of the sect resident in this country, 

formerly a Jehovah's Witness in Greece, alleges repeated persecution 

and hunting out by the police there—but refers only to one instance 

of actual imprisonment which lasted about 30 hours. As previously 

noted, the maximum other imprisonments described in the record 

were for about five months. Looking at the general situation as revealed by this record of Jehovah's Witnesses in Greece vis-a-vis Greek 

law, including the extent of the sanctions imposed by the authorities, 

we agree with the special inquiry officer's conclusion that any prosecution or other official opposition which might result from respondent's 

religious activities in Greece would not fall within the purview of 

section 243(h) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. We shall 

dismiss the appeal. 

ORDER: It is ordered that the appeal be and hereby is dismissed. 

255