Mihaly Kotasz, Agnes Horvath Kotasz, Matyas Kotasz, and Erika Kotasz v. Immigration and Naturalization Service

Mihaly and Agnes Kotasz, husband and wife, and their two children, Matyas and Erika, petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) decision denying their applications for asylum and withholding of deportation. All four members of the Kotasz family are natives and citizens of Hungary.

Although the BIA did not question the reliability of evidence showing that Mihaly Kotasz (“Mihaly”) was arrested and beaten on several occasions by the Hungarian police because of his active opposition to the Hungarian communist government, it denied Mi-haly’s asylum request. The BIA based its denial of asylum on the fact that Mihaly was arrested “along with numerous other demonstrators,” and thus, in its view, was not “singled out” for persecution. Similarly, the BIA denied the asylum claim of Agnes Ko-tasz (“Agnes”), which was based on her ethnic status as a gypsy, because it found that she had not been individually targeted for persecution. Because we find that, as to Mihaly, the BIA erred in its application of the requirement of a particularized threat of persecution, we grant the Kotaszes’ petition in part and deny it in part, and remand to the BIA for further…