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1 1 (September 7, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/goveisn0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional_______ ~ Research Service An Overview of the Statutory Bars to Asylum: Limitations on Granting Asylum (Part Two) September 7, 2022 Under Section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. @ 1158(a)(1), a non-U.S. national (alien as the term is used in the INA) who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated U.S. port of entry) may pursue asylum, regardless of that person's immigration status or manner of entry into the country. INA @ 208, however, renders some asylum seekers ineligible to apply for asylum or to be granted asylum. This Legal Sidebar, which discusses the mandatory bars to a grant of asylum, is the second in a two-part series discussing the statutory asylum restrictions. The first Sidebar is available here. Limitations on Ability to Be Granted Asylum An alien who might otherwise qualify for asylum relief may still be ineligible for asylum because of certain mandatory bars under INA @ 208(b)(2), 8 U.S.C. @ 1158(b)(2). If the government presents evidence that one or more of these bars applies, the asylum applicant must prove by a preponderance of the evidence (i.e., more likely than not) that the bar does not apply. Persecution of Others Asylum applicants who have persecuted others are generally barred from receiving asylum (this ineligibility is also known as the persecutor bar). INA @ 208(b)(2)(A)(i) provides that an alien who has ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the persecution of any person on account of a statutorily protected ground (e.g., political opinion) is ineligible for asylum. Federal appeals courts have adopted various standards to determine whether an applicant is subject to the persecutor bar. Generally, courts require a causal nexus between the alien's actions and the persecution of others. If an alien did not directly order, incite, or engage in persecution, courts require evidence that the alien assisted or otherwise participated in the persecution through actions that are materially instrumental-not merely tangential or inconsequential-to the persecution. In other words, the alien must have done something that furthered or contributed to the persecution. For that reason, courts have held, membership in (or association with) a group engaged in persecution does not, standing alone, trigger application of the persecutor bar. Courts also require that the alien acted with contemporaneous knowledge or with scienter that the persecution was occurring. Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10816 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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