## Facts

- Aminisitai Tagaga, an ethnic Fijian and career army officer who attained the rank of major, developed close ties with Indo-Fijians through his work and began supporting the Labour Party.
- Following Fiji’s 1987 coups and ethnically driven repression, Tagaga’s superiors ordered him to sever contact with the Indian community.
- Tagaga was later ordered to arrest Indo-Fijians considered threats by the regime; he refused.
- The military placed Tagaga under house arrest for six months because of his refusal and perceived political sympathies.
- After release, Tagaga was reinstated but assigned to a United Nations peacekeeping deployment in Lebanon, which he was told was imposed to separate and punish him.
- While abroad, Tagaga was informed he remained under surveillance and would face arrest and treason charges if he returned to Fiji.
- Tagaga and his family fled to the United States and sought asylum and withholding of deportation.
- An immigration judge denied relief; the Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed; Tagaga petitioned for review.

## Issues

1. Whether Tagaga’s house arrest, punitive overseas posting, surveillance, and threats of arrest and treason charges constituted past persecution on account of political opinion or imputed political opinion.
2. Whether a showing of past persecution required application of a presumption of a well-founded fear of future persecution, and whether the government rebutted that presumption.
3. Whether the agency’s denial of asylum and withholding of deportation was supported by substantial evidence.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit granted the petition for review.
- The court held the record compelled a finding that Tagaga suffered past persecution on account of political opinion (including imputed political opinion).
- The court held Tagaga was entitled to the regulatory presumption of a well-founded fear of future persecution and that the government did not rebut it with sufficient evidence.
- The court reversed the agency’s denial in relevant part and remanded for further proceedings consistent with the correct legal standards, including reconsideration of withholding under the proper framework.

## Legal Principles

- Persecution may consist of serious restraints and threats, including nonphysical harm, and is not limited to overt violence.
- Punitive measures imposed through military authority can constitute persecution when they are tied to a protected ground rather than ordinary discipline.
- Harm is “on account of” political opinion when punishment is motivated by an applicant’s expressed views, opposition to discriminatory state action, or political views attributed to the applicant.
- A showing of past persecution triggers a rebuttable presumption of future persecution for asylum; the government bears the burden to rebut by showing changed circumstances or reasonable internal relocation.
- Agency findings must be supported by substantial evidence; reversal is warranted where the record compels the opposite conclusion.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit concluded that politically motivated house arrest, a punitive foreign posting, and credible threats of treason prosecution amounted to past persecution, requiring a presumption of future persecution that the government failed to rebut, and it remanded for the agency to apply the proper standards to asylum and withholding.


Tagaga v. INS, 228 F.3d 1030 (9th Cir. 2000)