Matter of Acosta

Summary

Seminal, foundational case law, that anyone would be hard-pressed to summarize. This authority establishes the respondent's burden of proof; defines the standards of fear for asylum; specifies standards for persecution as it relates to Particular Social Groups; more tightly defines persecution on the basis of political opinion, and last but certainly not least, establishes that a threat of persecution must exist country-wide.

Holding

(1) Construction of the provisions the United Nations Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, Jan. 31, 1967, [1968 19 U.S.T. 6223, T.I.A.S. No. 6577, 606 U.N.T.S. 268, is left by that agreement to each state that is party to the Protocol; accordingly, the various international interpretations of the Protocol, including the Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status Under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the status of Refugees published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, are useful tools in construing our obligations under the Protocol, but they are neither binding upon the United States nor controlling as to construction of the Refugee Act of 1980.

(2) An alien in an exclusion or deportation proceeding who seeks to demonstrate eligibility for either asylum under section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1158 (1982), or withholding of deportation under section 243(h) of the Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1253(h) (1982), must make two related showings: he must meet his evidentiary burdens of proof and persuasion as to the facts, and he must meet the statutory standards of eligibility set out by the pertinent provisions in the Act.

(3) It is the alien who bears the burdens of proof and persuasion in asylum and withholding of deportation cases and he must establish the facts by a preponderance of the evidence.

(4) In order to meet the statutory standard of eligibility for asylum, an alien must satisfy each of the following four elements in the definition of a refugee created by section 101(aX42XA) of the Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1101(aX42XA) (1982):

(1) the alien must have a 'fear' of 'persecution';

(2) the fear must be 'well founded';

(3) the persecution feared must be 'on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion'; and

(4) the alien must be unable or unwilling to return to his country of nationality or to the country in which he last habitually resided because of persecution or his well-founded fear of persecution.

(5) The statutory standard for asylum requires the facts to show that an alien's primary motivation for requesting refuge in the United States is 'fear,' i e. , a genume apprehension or awareness of danger in another country, no other motivation will suffice.

(6) The term 'persecution' in the definition of a refugee under the Act means harm or suffering that is inflicted upon an individual in order to punish him for possessing a belief or characteristic a persecutor seeks to overcome; the word does not encompass the harm that arises out of civil or military strife in a country.

(7) The requirement of a 'well-founded fear of persecution' in section 101(aX42)(A) of the Act means that an individual's fear of persecution must have its basis in external, or objective, facts that show there is a realistic likelihood he will be persecuted upon his return to a particular country; this requires an alien to show that his fear has a solid basis in objective facts or events and that it is likely he will become the victim of persecution.

(8) In order for an alien to show that it is likely he will become the victim of persecution, his evidence must demonstrate that:

(1) the alien possesses a belief or characteristic a persecutor seeks to overcome in others by means of punishment of some sort;

(2) the persecutor is already aware, or could easily become aware, that the alien possesses this belief or characteristic;

(3) the persecutor has the capability of punishing the alien; and

(4) the persecutor has the inclination to punish the alien.

(9) The well-founded fear standard for asylum and the clear probability standard for withholding of deportation are not meaningfully different and, in practical application, converge.

(10) 'Persecution on account of membership in a particular social group' refers to persecution that is directed toward an individual who is a member of a group of persons, all of whom share a common, immutable characteristic. i.e., a characteristic that either is beyond the power of the individual members of the group to change or is so fundamental to their identities or consciences that it ought not be required to be changed.

(11) In order for an alien to show persecution on account of 'political opinion' within the meaning of the Act, it is not sufficient to show that a persecutor's conduct furthers his goals in a political controversy; rather, the alien must show that it is his own, individual political opinion that a persecutor seeks to overcome by the infliction of harm or suffering.

(12) The requirement that an alien must be unable or unwilling to return to a particular country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution requires an alien to do more than show a threat of persecution in a particular place or abode within a country—he must show that the threat of persecution exists for him country-wide.

Notes

While this authority's holdings echo through nearly every asylum case, there's been a lot of new law since. Regardless--foundational, required reading.