Preet Kaur v. Gonzales

I. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW

Petitioner Kaur, a native and citizen of India, entered the United States in March of 1993. Subsequently, in January 1995, Kaur applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the CAT. In her initial application, Kaur provided certain biographical information about herself, specifically representing that she was not married. She claimed that she was persecuted because her brother and father were members of the All India Sikh Student Federation (“Federation”) and had been active in local political affairs. Kaur described in her application how, in December of 1991, more than 65 Punjabi police officers raided her home and arrested her brother and father. She also stated that she had personally campaigned for the boycott of the February 1992 state assembly election in the Punjab region of India. She recalled that she was arrested, in May of 1992, taken to a police station, and raped twice by a local police officer. She represented that she subsequently fled India by traveling first to Nepal, then to Singapore, Can- ada, and finally, the United States.

After submitting her application, an INS officer inter- viewed Kaur on February 15,…