## Facts

- Chen, a native and citizen of China, entered the United States as a nonimmigrant student in 1980 and overstayed his authorized period.
- The government placed Chen in deportation proceedings for remaining longer than permitted.
- Chen sought asylum and withholding of deportation based on persecution during China’s Cultural Revolution tied to his family’s Christian faith; his father was a Christian minister.
- Chen testified that Red Guards detained, interrogated, and abused him because of his religion and family background.
- He reported serious lasting harm, including head trauma, hearing loss, severe psychological distress, and years of social ostracism from roughly 1973 until his departure in 1980.
- The immigration judge found Chen deportable and denied asylum and withholding, reasoning that then-current conditions in China toward religious activity reduced the likelihood of future persecution.
- On appeal, the Board granted asylum; the government moved for reconsideration, leading to a published decision reaffirming asylum and clarifying the governing framework.

## Issues

1. Whether an asylum applicant may establish eligibility by proving past persecution on a protected ground without proving a present well-founded fear of future persecution.
2. If past persecution is established but current risk appears low due to changed country conditions, whether asylum may still be granted in the exercise of discretion for humanitarian reasons.
3. After past persecution is shown, what role the government’s evidence of changed conditions plays in the discretionary analysis.

## Decision

- The Board granted the government’s motion to reconsider but, upon reconsideration, again sustained Chen’s appeal and granted asylum.
- The Board held that past persecution on account of a protected ground can establish asylum eligibility even if future persecution is not shown.
- The Board treated the likelihood of present persecution as primarily relevant to the discretionary decision whether to grant asylum once past persecution is established.
- The Board concluded that, even assuming little likelihood of present persecution in China, the severity and enduring effects of Chen’s past persecution warranted a favorable discretionary grant for humanitarian reasons.

## Legal Principles

- An applicant for asylum may establish eligibility by showing past persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, even without demonstrating a current well-founded fear.
- Once past persecution is shown, the likelihood of present persecution is considered in deciding whether asylum should be granted as a matter of discretion; asylum may be denied in discretion if there is little likelihood of current persecution.
- After past persecution is established, the government ordinarily bears the burden to present evidence that current persecution is unlikely, or the adjudicator may take administrative notice of changed country conditions.
- Asylum may be granted as a discretionary, humanitarian measure despite a low likelihood of future persecution when past persecution was severe and its effects persist such that return would be inhumane.

## Conclusion

The Board recognized that severe past persecution can independently support asylum eligibility and that, even where changed conditions reduce current risk, asylum may be granted in discretion for humanitarian reasons when the historical harm was extreme and enduring.


Matter of Chen, 20 I. & N. Dec. 16 (B.I.A. 1989)