Immigration – Asylum

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Nadia Bohdanivna Chuchman v. Merrick B. Garland

Case No.: 20-3205

Officials: EASTERBROOK, KANNE, and KIRSCH, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Immigration – Asylum

Nadiia Chuchman, a citizen of Ukraine, appeals the denial of her application for asylum based on political opinion. She maintains that the Ukrainian government persecuted her nearly a decade ago for her political activity in opposing the former president. She primarily argues that the Immigration Judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals erred in finding that she had not experienced past persecution after government actors beat her severely, detained her for a day, and pressured her university’s dean to expel her if she remained politically active. She also maintains that they ignored evidence of ongoing corruption in Ukraine when finding that her political party’s rise to power meant she was unlikely to be persecuted in the future. Because substantial evidence supports the Board’s conclusion that Chuchman’s experience in Ukraine did not rise to the level of persecution, and because she failed to present compelling evidence that the new Ukrainian government would persecute her if she returned, we deny the petition for review.

Petition denied

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Derek A Hawkins is Corporate Counsel, at Salesforce.