Yongguo Lai v. Eric Holder, Jr.

I. Background

In a written statement included with his initial application, Lai explained that he started practicing Christianity a few years after he lost his job as a factory worker in Fushun, China. He began going to church with his wife, and was baptized on December 24, 2004. According to Lai’s statement, on July 17, 2005, police searched and detained Lai as he arrived at a gathering place in a suburb of Fushun to listen to a Korean preacher. Lai and other church members were taken to a police station, where Lai was beaten and interrogated twice. Lai’s wife paid for him to be released after 10 days, at which time the police told Lai that he could

LAI V. HOLDER

not mention his detention to anyone and that he could no longer participate in such “illegal gatherings.” Lai also had to regularly report to the police station after his release. In his statement, Lai also wrote that his wife told him the police had come to their home in China looking for him several times after he arrived in the United States.

Lai left China for the United States in November 2005. He then applied for asylum, withholding of removal and protection under CAT, claiming…