Giedrius Leo Kazlauskas v. Immigration & Naturalization Service

OVERVIEW

Petitioner Giedrius Leo Kazlauskas was found deportable by an immigration judge (“IJ”) and Kazlauskas’ applications for asylum and temporary withholding of deportation were denied. The Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirmed the IJ’s decision, and Kazlauskas appeals. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1105a, and we affirm.

FACTS

Kazlauskas was born in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1964, when that country was controlled by the Soviet Union. Kazlauskas’ father had been a dissident and political prisoner in Soviet labor camps, where he died in 1975. Kazlauskas was religious and resisted participation in programs sponsored by the Communist Party. As a result, he was ostracized, harassed by his teachers and peers, and prevented from advancing to the university.

Kazlauskas came to this country in 1980, at the age of sixteen. Shortly thereafter, he developed a drinking problem. In 1983, he was twice convicted of burglary. His mother was granted asylum as a refugee in 1984, but Kazlauskas failed to attend the hearing at which he, too, could have been granted asylum. Since then, he has become sober and has held a steady job that allows him to help his mother with her…

dissenting:

Giedrius Leo Kazlauskas petitions this court to review the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (the Board) denying him asylum. The Board adopted the decision and the reasoning of the Immigration Judge (IJ). We review the Board, but by the terms of its decision we are referred to the decision and reasoning of the IJ. The IJ’s reasoning is far from clear. He acknowledges that under Matter of Chen, 20 I & N Dec., Int. Dec. 3104 (BIA 1989), an applicant for asylum may establish eligibility by presenting evidence of past persecution, as Kazlauskas sought to do. The IJ believed the testimony of Kazlauskas but ruled that there was no proof “that he has ever been sought out for persecution by the former Soviet Union or its government or apparatuses.” In reaching *908 this conclusion the IJ ignored Kazlauskas’ testimony that at school he was subjected to harassment by teachers because of his religious beliefs and his mother’s testimony that for a period of 12 years, from 1963 to 1975, his parents were annually put under house arrest for a period of days with the effect that they were political prisoners and did not have any friends. The teachers at school and those…

46 F.3d 902 Giedrius Leo KAZLAUSKAS, Petitioner, v. IMMIGRATION & NATURALIZATION SERVICE, Respondent. No. 92-70665. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Submitted April 5, 1994. * Decided Jan. 27, 1995. Judith L. Wood, Los Angeles, CA, for petitioner. Karen Fletcher Torstenson, Office of Immigration Litigation, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, DC, for respondent. Petition to Review a Decision of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Before: HUG, WIGGINS, and NOONAN, Circuit Judges. WIGGINS, Circuit Judge: OVERVIEW 1 Petitioner Giedrius Leo Kazlauskas was found deportable by an immigration judge ("IJ") and Kazlauskas' applications for asylum and temporary withholding of deportation were denied. The Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA") affirmed the IJ's decision, and Kazlauskas appeals. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1105a, and we affirm. FACTS 2 Kazlauskas was born in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1964, when that country was controlled by the Soviet Union. Kazlauskas' father had been a dissident and political prisoner in Soviet labor camps, where he died in 1975. Kazlauskas was religious and resisted participation in programs sponsored by the Communist…