Opinion ID: 773894
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Aguirre-Aguirre

Text: 42 We are mindful of the Supreme Court's analysis and holding in INS v. Aguirre-Aguirre, 526 U.S. 415 (1999). We apply the reasoning of that case, but find it to be distinguishable. See 526 U.S. at 415. 8 The Supreme Court reviewed our court's reversal of the BIA's conclusion that an asylum applicant was ineligible for withholding of deportation because he had committed a serious nonpolitical crime. 121 F.3d 521 (9th Cir. 1997). In particular, we held that the BIA failed to consider the rules embodied in two United Nations documents to which the United States was a party, and which gave rise to the immigration statute in question, as well as a United Nations handbook. 121 F.2d at 524. The Supreme Court held that we failed to accord the required level of deference that the BIA was due in interpreting the statute which it administers. Aguirre-Aguirre, 526 U.S. at 424. However, the Supreme Court did not blindly defer to the BIA's interpretation. It carefully examined the statute and decided that theBIA's approach [was] consistent with its plain language. Id. at 430; see also id. at 426. We undertake the same analysis in this case and reverse because the BIA's approach is not consistent with the regulation's plain language. 43 In Aguirre-Aguirre we erred and were reversed because we substituted our own interpretation for the BIA's consistent, reasonable interpretation of a statute that was for the BIA to interpret. In this case, we do not replace the BIA's interpretation with our own interpretation. Instead, we follow the approach taken by the Supreme Court and examine whether the BIA's interpretation is contrary to the plain language and intent of the regulation. 9 As we have shown, the BIA's new requirement of ongoing disability is unreasonable and inconsistent with the text of the regulation, the intent of the agency as embodied in Chen, and the past practices of the BIA and this Court. We were admonished in Aguirre-Aguirre to give deference to the BIA in interpreting immigration laws, but the Court in Aguirre-Aguirre acknowledged that while giving deference, we may still identify and reverse decisions of the BIA that are at odds with the text and spirit of our nation's immigration rules. We are faced with such an inconsistent and unreasonable decision now. 44 The Matter of Chen exception is an expression of humanitarian considerations that sometimes past persecution is so horrific that the march of time and the ebb and flow of political tides cannot efface the fear in the mind of the persecuted. Long-lasting, genuine fear can be visited upon somebody even if they do not have a crippled arm or leg to remind them of what they have suffered, and any other interpretation of the language of the regulation and the intent behind the rule is so clearly inconsistent and unreasonable as to be undeserving of our deference.