E-A

Citations

• 26 I. & N. Dec. 1

Syllabus

E-A-, 26 I&N Dec. 1 (BIA 2012) ID 3766 (PDF) (1) In assessing whether there are serious reasons for believing that an applicant for asylum or withholding of removal has committed a serious nonpolitical crime, an Immigration Judge should balance the seriousness of the criminal acts against the political aspect of the conduct to determine whether the criminal nature of the acts outweighs their political character. (2) When considered together, the applicant's actions as a member of a group that burned passenger buses and cars, threwstones, and disrupted the economic activity of merchants in the market, while pretending to be from the opposition party, reached the level of serious criminal conduct that, when weighed against its political nature, constituted a serious nonpolitical crime.