Korablina v. INS

Korablina v. INS

Opinion

 [*1041]  OPINION

TROTT, Circuit Judge:

Vera Korablina, a fifty-five year old native of Russia and a citizen of the Ukraine, witnessed, and was the subject of repeated beatings and severe harassment by an ultra-nationalist group in Kiev. She was the target of this oppression on account of her Jewish heritage.

Korablina petitions this court for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decision dismissing her appeal of an immigration judge's (IJ) denial of her application for asylum and withholding of deportation. Although finding her testimony and the testimony of her daughter to be credible in all respects, the IJ determined that Korablina had established that she was the target only [**2]  of discrimination, not of persecution. The BIA reviewed the proceedings and affirmed. The BIA held that Korablina had failed to establish either past persecution or a well-founded fear of future persecution on account of being Jewish.

We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1105a, and we grant the petition for review. We hold that the credible evidence compels both a finding of past persecution and a well-founded fear of future persecution. The record also compels a finding that there is a clear probability of persecution as required for the withholding of deportation.

BACKGROUND

Korablina's father was Russian. Her mother was Jewish. Her father adopted Judaism, and she was raised in the Jewish tradition in the Ukraine. Korablina testified that during the German occupation, her grandmother, mother and aunt were either taken by the Germans or forced into hiding because of their religion.

Korablina testified that early in her life she had to attend technical school because she was denied admittance to the Poly-Technical Institute of Kiev because she was Jewish. After getting a degree, she worked in an automated machinery factory from 1962 until 1990. She [**3]  testified that she encountered constant obstacles to career advancement because of her religion. She was ultimately fired in 1990 because of her religion and because her new boss was a member of an ultra-nationalist and anti-Semitic group. Her explanation of the cause of her dismissal is revealing.

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