Opinion ID: 2567
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Resolving Petitioners' Arguments by Reference to Their Asylum Claims

Text: Before discussing the various challenges petitioners raise to the BIA's precedential decisions in their cases, we note that petitioners frame those arguments, in the first instance, by reference to their claims for asylum. This makes sense because, to secure asylum, petitioners need demonstrate only that their professed fear of future persecution in China in the form of forced sterilization is well founded, see 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42), a lighter burden of proof than showing that such persecution is more likely than not, the standard necessary to secure withholding of removal or CAT relief. See INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. at 440, 107 S.Ct. 1207; [15] accord Yi Long Yang v. Gonzales, 478 F.3d 133, 141 (2d Cir.2007); see also 8 C.F.R. § 208.16(b)(2) (providing that alien seeking withholding of removal must establish that it is more likely than not that his life or freedom would be threatened in his country of origin on one of specified protected grounds); id. § 208.16(c)(2) (requiring alien seeking CAT relief to show it is more likely than not that he would be tortured on removal). Thus, if the BIA properly concluded that petitioners each failed to demonstrate a well-founded fear of future persecution, it follows that they cannot carry the heavier burden necessary to secure withholding of removal or CAT relief. Because we identify no error in the BIA's asylum ruling, we need not discuss these other forms of relief from removal.