The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals published its opinion in Pang v. Holder, Jr. on Friday, January 6, 2012.
The Tenth Circuit affirmed the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) decision. Petitioner illegally entered the United States in 1993 from his native country of China. Just months after his arrival, he applied for asylum, withholding of removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act and relief under the Convention Against Torture. “He claims he suffered economic and emotional persecution due to his resistance to Chinese population control policies.”
The Court found that Petitioner “undoubtedly suffered emotional distress because of his wife’s sterilization, her ectopic pregnancy and the fine.” However, the evidence allowed the BIA to determine that the fine and economic penalties were not so onerous as to amount to past persecution. “And most significantly, his wife and children remain in China unharmed and able to continue farming. [Petitioner] has not shown that family planning officials have a continued interest in him such that there is a reasonable possibility that he would suffer persecution upon his return to China. Accordingly, while [Petitioner's] situation is sympathetic, he has not established eligibility for asylum.”
Print 
PDF
