Kaur

MEMORANDUM **

Gurdish Kaur (“Kaur”), a native and citizen of India, petitions for review of the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) dismissing her appeal of the immigration judge’s denial of her requests for asylum and withholding of deportation pursuant to 8 U.S.C. §§ 1158 (a) and 1253(h). Kaur had testified that: (1) her brother had been tortured on account of his involvement in a student organization that supports the creation of a separate state called Khalistan, and ultimately fled to the United States; (2) in 1992, security forces looking for her father arrested her instead and held her for eight hours, threatening severe punishment if her father continued his activities in Akali Dal, a political party also supporting the creation of Khalistan; and (3) in 1993, she was arrested along with her father, who was severely beaten, and she was threatened with rape if he did not discontinue his support of Akali Dal.

Although finding Kaur credible, the BIA dismissed Kaur’s appeal on the ground that the treatment Kaur herself suffered did not rise to the level of persecution. Where the BIA accepts the petitioner’s factual assertions as true, the BIA’s application of…