Opinion ID: 221002
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Hu's pro-labor activities constitute a political opinion

Text: Hu was also engaged in protected activity because he held and expressed a pro-labor political opinion. We have repeatedly recognized that labor speech in many instances can be political. See, e.g., Zavala-Bonilla v. INS, 730 F.2d 562, 563 (9th Cir.1984) (acknowledging the political nature of a textile worker's participation in her union's activities, including a nationwide strike); Prasad v. INS, 101 F.3d 614, 617 (9th Cir.1996) (concluding that petitioner was persecuted because of his advocacy for the workplace rights of Fijians of Indian descent and his role as a delegate in the ousted Labour Party); Agbuya v. INS, 241 F.3d 1224, 1229 (9th Cir.2001) (holding company executive was kidnaped based on imputed political opinion stemming from a labor dispute); Vera-Valera v. INS, 147 F.3d 1036, 1037-38 (9th Cir. 1998) (concluding that Marxist guerillas imputed a pro-government political opinion to labor leader's support of a construction project that would benefit the workers at the guerillas' expense). Although there is no easy test to determine when a worker's or employer's action is political  as opposed to or in addition to economic  our case law makes clear that labor agitation advancing economic interests can nevertheless express a political opinion. Hu's engagement in labor speech is especially political because his employer was the government. Moreover, his dispute arose not from the normal course of business, but rather from official corruption and deception. Hu wrote letters to the government on behalf of the laid-off workers, led a protest against the government in front of a government building, and told Chinese officials that he was just in favor of the legal rights of those laid off workers because the government refused to pay promised severance benefits to Hu and his coworkers after failing to prevent the corruption that left them unemployed. See also Mamouzian v. Ashcroft, 390 F.3d 1129, 1133-35 & n. 3 (9th Cir.2004) (recognizing that petitioner was persecuted on account of her political opinion when she was arrested, detained, and beaten after expressing her opposition to the economic policies of the ruling party as implemented in the state-run factory where she worked). Accordingly, there is nothing in the record to support the BIA's conclusion that Hu's mistreatment arose solely because of a private dispute.