Duarte De Guinac v. Immigration & Naturalization Service

Mauro Jose Guinac Quiej (“Guinac”) and Mildred Yesenia Duarte de Guinac (“Duarte”), husband and wife, petition this court for review of a final order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA” or “Board”) dismissing on the merits their consolidated appeals from the order of an Immigration Judge (“IJ”). The IJ’s order had denied their applications for asylum and withholding of deportation. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1105a. 2 We conclude that Guinac has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of his race. Accordingly, we grant the petition for review.

I. General Legal Principles

The Attorney General has discretion to grant an alien asylum if the alien is *1159 determined to be a “refugee,” within the meaning of section 101(a)(42)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1101 (a)(42)(A). Refugee status is established in most instances by evidence that an alien is unable or unwilling to return to his home country because of a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion. See INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 421, 428 , 107 S.Ct. 1207 , 94 L.Ed.2d 434 (1987);…