## Facts

- Vera Korablina, a Jewish woman from Ukraine, entered the United States on a visitor visa and applied for asylum and withholding of deportation shortly before her visa expired.
- She was raised in the Jewish tradition and reported family persecution during the German occupation based on religion.
- She faced educational and employment discrimination in Ukraine, including denial of admission to an institute, blocked advancement, and termination from factory work allegedly due to anti-Semitism.
- She later worked for a Jewish employer and described escalating anti-Semitic violence by ultra-nationalist actors in Kyiv.
- She testified to repeated beatings, severe harassment, and anti-Semitic threats via phone calls and notes.
- In a major incident, attackers entered her workplace, assaulted her, tied her to a chair with a noose around her neck, and beat her badly enough to require medical treatment.
- She reported that her Jewish employer was violently attacked and later disappeared; a friend who attempted to help her also disappeared.
- Her daughter corroborated the events and described additional threats and attacks affecting the family.
- The record included country-conditions evidence of anti-Semitic violence and insufficient state protection for Jews in Ukraine.
- The Immigration Judge found Korablina and her daughter credible but denied relief as “discrimination” rather than persecution; the BIA affirmed and ordered deportation to Ukraine.

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence compelled a finding that Korablina suffered past persecution on account of her Jewish identity.
2. Whether the evidence compelled a finding of a well-founded fear of future persecution if returned to Ukraine.
3. Whether the evidence compelled a finding that she met the “clear probability” standard for withholding of deportation.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit granted the petition for review and reversed the BIA’s denial of asylum and withholding of deportation.
- The court held the record compelled a finding of past persecution on account of Korablina’s Jewish heritage.
- The court held the record compelled a finding of a well-founded fear of future persecution, including the regulatory presumption arising from past persecution.
- The court further held the record compelled a finding that Korablina established a clear probability of persecution for withholding of deportation.

## Legal Principles

- Under substantial-evidence review, agency findings must be upheld unless the record compels the opposite conclusion; reversal is warranted when no reasonable factfinder could fail to find the requisite persecution or fear.
- Persecution is more than ordinary discrimination and may be shown through the cumulative effect of harm, including repeated beatings, severe harassment, threats, and other conduct threatening life or freedom when motivated by a protected ground.
- Credible testimony accepted by the factfinder cannot be minimized as mere discrimination when the described harms constitute persecutory violence and intimidation.
- Proof of past persecution on a protected ground creates a regulatory presumption of a well-founded fear of future persecution, which the government must rebut with sufficient evidence.
- Withholding of deportation requires a “clear probability” (more likely than not) of persecution; sufficiently severe and repeated past harm, combined with continuing risk reflected in the record, can satisfy this higher standard.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit concluded that Korablina’s credible evidence of targeted anti-Semitic violence, threats, and related disappearances compelled findings of past persecution, a well-founded fear of future persecution, and a clear probability of persecution, requiring reversal of the denial of asylum and withholding of deportation.


Korablina v. Immigration & Naturalization Serv., 158 F.3d 1038 (9th Cir. 1998)