Filed: Mar. 21, 2000
Latest Update: Feb. 21, 2020
Summary: F I L E D United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MAR 21 2000 FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT PATRICK FISHER Clerk CARLOS ALBERTO LARA YUPANQUI; SUYAPA RODRIGUEZ DE LARA, Petitioners, No. 99-9506 (No. A72 450 187/188) v. (Petition for Review) IMMIGRATION & NATURALIZATION SERVICE, Respondent. ORDER AND JUDGMENT * Before KELLY , HENRY , and MURPHY , Circuit Judges. After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined unanimously to grant the parties’
Summary: F I L E D United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MAR 21 2000 FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT PATRICK FISHER Clerk CARLOS ALBERTO LARA YUPANQUI; SUYAPA RODRIGUEZ DE LARA, Petitioners, No. 99-9506 (No. A72 450 187/188) v. (Petition for Review) IMMIGRATION & NATURALIZATION SERVICE, Respondent. ORDER AND JUDGMENT * Before KELLY , HENRY , and MURPHY , Circuit Judges. After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined unanimously to grant the parties’ ..
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F I L E D
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
MAR 21 2000
FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT
PATRICK FISHER
Clerk
CARLOS ALBERTO LARA
YUPANQUI; SUYAPA RODRIGUEZ
DE LARA,
Petitioners, No. 99-9506
(No. A72 450 187/188)
v. (Petition for Review)
IMMIGRATION &
NATURALIZATION SERVICE,
Respondent.
ORDER AND JUDGMENT *
Before KELLY , HENRY , and MURPHY , Circuit Judges.
After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined
unanimously to grant the parties’ request for a decision on the briefs without oral
argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(f); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is therefore
ordered submitted without oral argument.
*
This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the
doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. The court
generally disfavors the citation of orders and judgments; nevertheless, an order
and judgment may be cited under the terms and conditions of 10th Cir. R. 36.3.
Petitioner Carlos Alberto Lara Yupanqui seeks our review of the Board of
Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) decision affirming the Immigration Judge’s denial of
his application for asylum and withholding of deportation under the Immigration
and Nationality Act. 2 We conclude, based on our review of the administrative
record, the applicable law, and the parties’ submissions, that the BIA’s decision is
supported by substantial record evidence and we affirm.
Petitioner, a Peruvian native and citizen, entered the United States in May
1990 as a business visitor. Petitioner is a professional musician who performs
with a musical group that toured internationally before coming to the United
States. He overstayed his visa, which expired in March 1991. Thereafter, he
applied for asylum and withholding of deportation based on his fear of
persecution both by the Sendero Luminoso (the Shining Path), a Peruvian
guerrilla group that unsuccessfully attempted to recruit him, and by the Peruvian
government, for political opinions allegedly imputed to him by virtue of the
Sendero Luminoso’s recruitment efforts. Petitioner professes political neutrality.
Asylum and withholding of deportation are the two avenues of relief
available to a deportable alien who claims he will be persecuted if deported. See
2
Petitioner’s wife, Suyapa Rodriquez de Lara, also seeks asylum and
withholding of deportation. Because Ms. Rodriguez de Lara’s application is
derivative of petitioner’s application, we address only his directly and refer
throughout to petitioner in the singular.
-2-
Kapcia v. INS ,
944 F.2d 702, 706 (10th Cir. 1991). In order to be eligible for
asylum, an alien must first establish refugee status. See
id. Thereafter, the
Attorney General can exercise her discretion to grant asylum to the otherwise
deportable alien. See 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b)(1). In order to qualify for refugee
status, an alien must establish “he is unable or unwilling to return to ‘any country
of such person’s nationality . . . because of [past] persecution or a well-founded
fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a
particular social group, or political opinion.’” Nazaraghaie v. INS ,
102 F.3d 460,
462 (10th Cir. 1996) (quoting 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42)(A)). “[T]he well-founded
fear of persecution standard [ ] require[s] a subjective ‘fear’ component and an
objective ‘well-founded’ component.” Kapcia , 944 F.2d at 706. The subjective
component is not relevant unless the alien has proved the objective component.
See
id. It is the applicant’s burden to meet this objective component with
“credible, direct, and specific evidence in the record.” Nazaraghaie , 102 F.3d at
462 (quotation omitted).
In order to be eligible for withholding of deportation, the second avenue of
relief, the alien must show “a clear probability of persecution with objective
evidence that it is more likely than not that he or she will be subject to
persecution upon deportation.”
Id. at 465 (quotations omitted). This is a more
difficult standard to meet than the refugee standard. See
id.
-3-
In affirming the Immigration Judge’s decision, the BIA found that there
was no evidence in the record that: (1) the Sendero Luminoso had mistreated
petitioner or his family; (2) petitioner was selected for recruitment based on any
of his own political opinions; (3) the Sendero Luminoso considered petitioner’s
decision not to join the movement an expression of opposition; and (4) the
government of Peru viewed him as affiliated with that movement. See Admin. R.
at 3. Thus, the BIA concluded that petitioner failed to meet his asylum burden to
show past persecution or a well-founded fear of future persecution and,
consequently, he also failed to meet the higher standard for withholding of
deportation. See
id. On appeal, petitioner challenges the BIA’s conclusion that
he failed to show a well-founded fear of persecution based on his political
opinion. “The BIA’s determination that [petitioner] was not eligible for asylum
must be upheld if supported by reasonable, substantial, and probative evidence on
the record considered as a whole.” INS v. Elias-Zacarias ,
502 U.S. 478, 481
(1992) (quotation omitted).
-4-
We have reviewed the record, the parties’ submissions, and the relevant
law. We conclude that the BIA’s decision is supported by substantial record
evidence and, accordingly, we AFFIRM the BIA’s dismissal of the appeal.
Entered for the Court
Paul J. Kelly, Jr.
Circuit Judge
-5-