Opinion ID: 2567
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Unchallenged Issue of Statutory Interpretation

Text: To secure asylum, an alien must demonstrate that he qualifies as a refugee within the meaning of the INA because he has suffered past persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, or that he has a well-founded fear of future persecution on such grounds. 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42). Government-ordered forced abortions or sterilizations are statutorily recognized as political persecution. See id. On these petitions for review, no party challenges the BIA's decision to construe 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42) to recognize the possibility that, on a case-by-case analysis, some Chinese nationals with two or more children might be able to demonstrate a well-founded fear of future forced sterilization based on general population control policies without any evidence of past persecution or threats of persecution to themselves as individuals. Having ourselves identified ambiguity in the statutory language as it might apply in such circumstances, see Jian Hui Shao v. BIA, 465 F.3d at 501-02, we now accord Chevron deference to the BIA's statutory construction, which rejects a categorical application of the well-founded fear provision to such claims in favor of case-by-case review. See Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694. The BIA's construction finds support in INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 421, 107 S.Ct. 1207, 94 L.Ed.2d 434. In that case, the Supreme Court indicated that a reasonable possibility of persecution could be sufficient to support a well-founded fear, see id. at 440, 107 S.Ct. 1207, and cited approvingly to a one-in-ten example of persecution to illustrate the sort of reasonable possibility that would demonstrate a well-founded fear, see id. (`Let us ... presume that it is known that in the applicant's country of origin every tenth adult male person is either put to death or sent to some remote labor camp.... In such a case it would be only too apparent that anyone who has managed to escape from the country in question will have a well-founded fear of being persecuted upon his eventual return.' (quoting 1 A. Grahl-Madsen, The Status of Refugees in International Law 180 (1966))). [16] At the same time, however, the Court declined to attempt any further interpretation of the well-founded fear standard, observing that [t]here is obviously some ambiguity in a term like `well-founded fear' which can only be given concrete meaning through a process of case-by-case adjudication. Id. at 448, 107 S.Ct. 1207 (citing Chevron in noting that, as to any gap left, implicitly or explicitly, by Congress, the courts must respect the interpretation of the agency to which Congress has delegated the responsibility for administering the statutory program (internal quotation marks omitted)). Accordingly, we accept the BIA's decision to apply case-by-case review to Chinese nationals' claimed fears of future persecution based on the births of two or more children, and we review in turn its conclusion that none of the three petitioners in these cases convincingly demonstrated that their professed fears were well founded.