Dagoberto Hermes Salazar-Paucar v. Immigration and Naturalization Service

Petitioner Dagoberto Hermes Salazar-Paucar petitions for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) decision denying his application for asylum and withholding of deportation. He asserts that the BIA erred in concluding that he did not suffer past persecution by the Sendero Luminoso (also known as the Shining Path) guerrillas in Pera when he received multiple death threats, his parents were beaten, and the other members of the town government in his position were murdered by the guerrillas. He also contends that the BIA erred in concluding that he no longer had a well-founded fear of persecution; the BIA relied on the fact that Petitioner lived “unmolested” away from his hometown for eighteen months, that there were changed conditions in Peru, and the seven years since Petitioner left Peru. We hold that the evidence compels a finding of past persecution and that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”) failed to rebut the presumption of future persecution. Accordingly, we grant Salazar-Pauear’s petition.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Petitioner is a native and citizen of Peru who entered the United States without inspection in October 1992. He…