Negusie v. Garland: Petitioner's CA5 Brief

Petitioner's Brief in CA5 Case No. 21-60314

"Petitioner, Daniel Girmai Negusie, petitions this Court to review and reverse the Board of Immigration Appeals’s decision affirming the Attorney General’s decision in Matter of Negusie, 28 I&N Dec. 120 (A.G. 2020), which held: (1) the bar to eligibility for asylum and withholding of removal based on the persecution of other does not include an exception for coercion or duress; and (2) the Department of Homeland Security does not have an evidentiary burden to show that an applicant is ineligible for asylum and withholding of removal based on the persecution of others. This Court should hold, in accordance with the international treaty obligations of the United States and Congressional intent in passing the Refugee Act of 1980, that the persecutor bar should be applied restrictively and that the bar is subject to a duress exception that applies when, based on consideration of the totality of circumstances, the applicant lacks the personal culpability required for application of the persecutor bar. Moreover, the Court should reaffirm, based on a long-standing asylum jurisprudence, that the government bears the initial burden of establishing that the persecutor bar may apply in individual cases."