Gaya Prasad v. Immigration and Naturalization Service

ORDER

Pursuant to our Order Denying Rehearing and Amending Opinion filed November 12, 1996, the opinion published in this case at 83 F.3d 315 is amended by the Amended Opinion which is filed herewith.

OPINION

Petitioner Gaya Prasad is a native and citizen of the Fiji Islands. He is a Hindu of Indian descent. He petitions for review of the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which affirmed an immigration judge’s (I J) decision denying his application for asylum and withholding of deportation. We have jurisdiction to review final orders of the BIA under 8 U.S.C. § 1105a. We grant the petition for review, reverse the BIA’s decision, and remand so that the Attorney General may exercise her discretion under section 208(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, 8 U.S.C. § 1158 (a).

FACTS

One year before the 1987 Fijian national elections, Prasad became active as a local delegate of the Hindu-dominated Labour Party. He was also the secretary of the labor union at the cement factory where he had worked for 16 years. After the Labour Party won the elections, Prasad left Fiji in April 1987 for a family vacation. He was in the United States when a military…