Opinion ID: 791669
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Requirements to Establish Eligibility for Asylum

Text: 20 To establish eligibility for asylum, a petitioner must show that he is a `refugee' within the meaning of the Immigration and Nationality Act, i.e., that 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 these grounds. Qiu v. Ashcroft, 329 F.3d 140, 148 (2d Cir.2003) (quoting 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42)). Once an asylum applicant has established eligibility for asylum, the decision whether to grant asylum rests with the discretion of the Attorney General, see 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b)(1), and is generally not reviewable unless manifestly contrary to law and an abuse of discretion, 8 U.S.C. § 1252(b)(4)(D); see also Melendez v. United States Dep't of Justice, 926 F.2d 211, 216-18 (2d Cir.1991) (holding that while BIA's findings of fact informing decision whether applicant is eligible for asylum are reviewed for substantial evidence, ultimate discretionary determination whether to grant asylum is reviewed for abuse of discretion). 21 The BIA originally held that application of the Chinese one family, one child policy did not constitute persecution on account of any of the enumerated grounds and so did not suffice to establish eligibility for asylum. See In re Chang, 20 I. & N. Dec. 38, 43 (BIA 1989). But in 1996 Congress passed legislation providing that forcible application of this policy constitutes persecution on account of political opinion: 22 [A] person who has been forced to abort a pregnancy or to undergo involuntary sterilization, or who has been persecuted for failure or refusal to undergo such a procedure or for other resistance to a coercive population control program, shall be deemed to have been persecuted on account of political opinion, and a person who has a well founded fear that he or she will be forced to undergo such a procedure or subject to persecution for such failure, refusal, or resistance shall be deemed to have a well founded fear of persecution on account of political opinion. 23 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42). The BIA has since held that the forcible application of the Chinese family planning policy to a male applicant's wife constitutes persecution as to the male applicant, allowing him to stand in the shoes of his wife in establishing eligibility for asylum on the basis of her forced sterilization or abortion. See In re C-Y-Z-, 21 I. & N. Dec. 915, 918-19 (BIA 1997). 24 While establishing a well-founded fear of future persecution automatically establishes an applicant's eligibility for asylum, establishing past persecution creates only a rebuttable presumption of such a well-founded fear and thus of eligibility for asylum. The government may generally overcome this presumption by showing, by a preponderance of the evidence, that conditions in the country from which the applicant fled have changed sufficiently that any such fear is no longer well-founded, see Qiu, 329 F.3d at 148, or that the applicant could avoid persecution by relocating to a different region of that country and that it would be reasonable to expect him to do so, see 8 C.F.R. § 208.13(b)(1)(i)(B). The BIA has held that because the persecution of forcible sterilization or abortion is permanent and continuous, it inherently generates an irrebuttable presumption of a well-founded fear of future persecution. See In re Y-T-L-, 23 I. & N. Dec. 601, 605-08 (BIA 2003); see also Qu v. Gonzales, 399 F.3d 1195, 1202-03 (9th Cir.2005) (following Y-T-L- ). Even in the absence of a well-founded fear of future persecution, an applicant who has established past persecution may be granted asylum in the exercise of discretion for certain compelling humanitarian reasons such as the severity of the past persecution or the likelihood that serious harm not attributable to persecution would follow removal. See 8 C.F.R. § 208.13(b)(1)(iii). 25 Therefore, a showing by Cao that his wife was subjected to a forced abortion in China would, under C-Y-Z-, establish that Cao suffered past persecution which, under Y-T-L-, would lead to an irrebuttable presumption of a well-founded fear of future persecution and thus conclusively establish his eligibility for asylum.