Feresin

MEMORANDUM **

Jadran Feresin, a Roman Catholic Croatian, seeks asylum and withholding of removal. Feresin suffered lasting, disfiguring injuries from severe beatings he endured for his refusal to participate in genocidal acts while in the Yugoslavian army, and refused to join - and publically criticized - both the Yugoslavian and Croatian armed forces because of their acts of ethnic cleansing and genocide. The Immigration Judge (“IJ”) granted Feresin’s petition for asylum. The IJ held that Feresin testified credibly, that he demonstrated past persecution, and that the INS failed to rebut the presumption that he had a well-founded fear of future persecution. The Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) reversed and held that Feresin failed to prove that conditions in Croatia had not changed sufficiently to rebut the presumption and that there was insufficient evidence of compelling reasons for his unwillingness to return to Croatia to reheve him of the burden of demonstrating a well-founded fear of future persecution. We reverse the BIA because we conclude that the evidence of the severity of Feresin’s past persecution plainly was sufficient under 8 C.F.R. § 208.13 (b)(1)(iii) so that…