Opinion ID: 77919
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Defining Persecution

Text: The term persecution is not defined by either the INA or the federal regulations. Nevertheless, we have said that `persecution is an extreme concept, requiring more than a few isolated incidents of verbal harassment or intimidation, and that mere harassment does not amount to persecution.' Sanchez Jimenez, 492 F.3d at 1232 (quoting Sepulveda, 401 F.3d at 1231); see also Silva v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 448 F.3d 1229, 1237 (11th Cir. 2006) (concluding that a written death threat alone did not compel a finding of past persecution). We have also rejected a rigid requirement of physical injury, making clear in Sanchez Jimenez that attempted murder is persecution, regardless of whether the petitioner was injured. 492 F.3d at 1233. In determining whether an alien has suffered past persecution, the IJ must consider the cumulative effect of the allegedly persecutory incidents. Delgado v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 487 F.3d 855, 861 (11th Cir.2007) (citing Ruiz, 479 F.3d at 766); see also Mejia v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 498 F.3d 1253, 1258 (11th Cir.2007) (In assessing past persecution we are required to consider the cumulative impact of the mistreatment the petitioners suffered. (emphasis in original)). Thus, even though each instance of mistreatment, when considered alone, may not amount to persecution, the record may still compel a finding of past persecution when considered as a whole. E.g., Delgado, 487 F.3d at 861. [6] Several of our recent' cases illustrate the types of oppressive acts that collectively amount to persecution. In Mejia, we were compelled to find past persecution in a case involving threats and attempted attacks over an eighteen-month period, which culminated when [the petitioner was] stopped on a roadway by three armed members of the FARO, who threatened [him] at gunpoint, threw him to the ground, and smashed him in the face with the butt of a rifle, breaking his nose. 498 F.3d 1253, 1255 (11th Cir.2007). Similarly, in Ruiz, we had no difficulty finding past persecution where the petitioner suffered repeated death threats, was twice physically assaulted, and was kidnapped and held against his will by FARC for eighteen days. See Ruiz, 479 F.3d at 766 & 2. And, most recently, in Niftaliev v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 504 F.3d 1211 (11th Cir.2007), we relied on our decision in Ruiz to find that the cumulative effect of numerous beatings, arrests, searches, and interrogations, culminating in a fifteen-day, food-deprived detention compelled a finding of past persecution. Id.