Surinder Kaur v. Eric Holder, Jr.

ORDER and MEMORANDUM

This case is submitted as of the date of this order.

Surinder Kaur petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’s (BIA) denial of her application for asylum and withholding of removal. Kaur’s petition for review was timely filed, see Abdisalan v. Holder, 774 F.3d 517 (9th Cir.2014) (en banc), and we have jurisdiction over this appeal under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 (a)(1).

The BIA erred in concluding that Dinu v. Ashcroft, 372 F.3d 1041 (9th Cir.2004) foreclosed Kaur’s asylum claim. While legitimate criminal investigation or prosecution does not constitute persecution on the basis of a protected ground, see id. at 1044 , Kaur credibly testified that she was beaten and raped by a police inspector, which did not constitute “interrogation tactics ... directed at the legitimate goal of finding evidence of crime,” id. Because her abuse was not part of a legitimate criminal investigation, her claim was not foreclosed by Dinu , and therefore the BIA erred in failing to consider Kaur’s claim of persecution on account of a protected ground.

Moreover, even if there had been a legitimate prosecutorial purpose for such actions, the BIA erred in failing to consider…