09-2619 Chen v. Holder

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Immigration
Asylum; persecution

Where an asylum claimant from China was arrested for engaging in political litigation, and her father beaten, she may be eligible for asylum based on persecution on account of political opinion.

"The Board's failure to address the time, place, and manner topic is not the only problem with its disposition. The response to Chen's suit was not a fine or any equivalent sanction but a warrant for her arrest. That step is so disproportionate to the filing of a frivolous suit that it raises the question whether the government was setting out to muzzle a political opponent rather than just to enforce the nation's rules on the appropriate subject matter of litigation. The agency did not consider the possibility that the attempt to arrest Chen revealed that the local government perceived a challenge much different from the annoyance of a suit filed by a person who did not own the confiscated property. The State Department reports that China has been stern in suppressing opposition to its land-acquisition policies, at least when that opposition takes the form of public gatherings, see 2006 Country Report: China 9, 15 (March 2007), and if China has classified Chen as a public protester then perhaps an imputed political opinion is 'at least one central reason' for the attempted arrest. The agency needs to consider this possibility; so far it has not done so."

Petition Granted.

09-2619 Chen v. Holder

Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals, Easterbrook, J.

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