01-1369 Pop v. INS

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“We understand Pop to be making two main claims. First, she claims that her grade- school teachers intentionally lowered her grades because she was a Jehovah’s Witness. As a result, Pop says she was unable to pursue her education beyond the eighth grade. She claims that if sent back to Romania, her low grades will foreclose access to further education and, therefore, dim her economic prospects. This is an argument about the future effects of past persecution. Pop is not arguing that those who would deny her access to educational opportunities in Romania will be persecuting her because of her religion. Rather, she is arguing that the effects of past persecution – i.e., her artificially low grades – will be visited on her in the future because they will foreclose advancement in the Romanian educational system. How that will all play out, for Pop is now at least 23 years old, is unclear. Nevertheless, the question to address is whether this claim of past persecution, assuming it occurred, is severe enough to qualify Pop for asylum. 8 C.F.R. sec. 208.13(b)(1)(ii); Bucur, 109 F.3d at 404-05.

“Pop also alludes to the beatings she suffered in school and the harassment, by police and villagers, against her because she is a Jehovah’s Witness. This potentially gives rise to a second claim that she will be subjected to persecution anew if she returns to Romania. If Pop could establish past persecution on this basis, it would give rise to the presumption of a well-founded fear of future persecution, but the government argues that this presumption is rebutted by the changed conditions in Romania since the fall of Ceausescu, the infamous Communist dictator, in 1989.”

Affirmed.

On Petition for Review From the Board of Immigration Appeals, Evans, J.