What is Asylum? Right to Remain
Past Persecution: You can still get Asylum.
Question: persecuted in the past in my home country.
The government came after me
because I was a political activist and I spoke out about the corruption of the government.
They brought me to prison, ransacked my home and threatened to tortured me and my family.
I barely escaped to the United States and am now claiming asylum. However, the government has changed and they are unlikely to persecute me on the same grounds as in the past.
Do I still have a chance to win asylum in the United States?
The new provision provides for discretionary grants of asylum
to victims of past persecution who no longer reasonably fear future persecution on account
of a protected ground upon removal to his or her home country.
In other words, an applicant who
(1) is a legitimate victim of past persecution and
(2) demonstrates a reasonable possibility of “other serious harm” upon deportation, is eligible for asylum under the new regulation.
Question: What will qualify for “other serious harm”?
Answer: The Justice Department now believes it is appropriate to broaden the standards for the exercise of discretion in such cases.
For example,
There may be cases where it is appropriate to offer protection to applicants who have suffered persecution in the past and who are at risk of future harm that is not related to a protected ground.
Therefore,
the rule includes, as a factor relevant to the exercise of discretion, whether the you may face a reasonable possibility of “other serious harm” upon return to your country of origin or last habitual residence.
As with any other element of an asylum claim,
the burden is on you to establish that such grounds exist and warrant a humanitarian grant of asylum based on past persecution alone.
(1) “compelling reasons for being unwilling or unable to return to the country arising out of the severity of the past persecution,” OR
(2) “a reasonable possibility that you may suffer other serious harm upon removal to that country.
However, it is a lessening of your burden in proving asylum when you can show the past persecution.
