The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has approved the asylum claim of a Russian-born, Jewish Ukrainian woman, overturning the decisions of both the Immigration Judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals. Vera Korablina's testimony was not disputed. But, the lower courts ordered the woman deported because she only showed "discrimination" and not "persecution."

Korablina was able to show she had been denied educational opportunities throughout her life due to her religious heritage. She was fired from her job of twenty-eight years because her new boss, a member of an extreme ultranationalist, anti-Semitic group, did not want Jews working for him. Korablina testified that a number of other employees - all Jewish - were also fired at the same time.

After she was fired, she began working as a secretary for a Jewish man. In Octo-

ber, 1993, three men burst into their offices and demanded money from her boss, claiming that, as a Jew, he was living at the expense of the Ukrainians. Her boss was beaten and robbed. An ambulance arrived after more than thirty minutes, but the police never even arrived.

After this incident, the extortionists returned on a monthly basis. On one occasion, they stole a list of employees and from that point on, she began to receive threatening phone calls and notes, often several times a week. Several threatened to kill her and warned her that if she sought help from others, the ultranationalists would kill them too. Korablina knew that reporting the crime to the police would have been useless anyway since the police did little to protect other Jews in the same situation. Many, in fact, are members of the same anti-Semitic, ultranationalist groups.

She did report the incidents to a friend at city hall who offered to help her. But the friend soon disappeared, never to be heard from again.

On another occasion, two men attacked her at a trade show demanding certain business papers in her possession. When she refused, they put a noose around her neck and tightened it until she relented and gave them the papers. They told her that even though she had a Russian name, they knew she was Jewish. She was left tied up and had to be taken to the hospital to treat a concussion suffered from being struck in the head by the men with a blunt instrument.

In September 1994, members of the ultra-nationalist group again came to the office, ransacked it, painted a Star of David on the wall, and threatened Korablina's boss. He soon also disappeared.

Korablina's adult daughter corraborated her testimony and also spoke of several threats and severe beatings she and her father suffered by members of the same groups on account of being married to his wife.

Korablina came to the US on a visitor visa and applied for asylum shortly before the visa was set to expire. The Immigration Judge ruled that what Korablina had described amounted to merely discrimination, and did not rise to the level of persecution. The BIA received an appeal and dismissed it, it named Ukraine instead of Russia as the country for deportation.

The Ninth Circuit discussed what standard should be used to determine whether one has faced persecution. The court defined persecution as "the infliction of suffering or harm upon those who differ (in race, religion or political opinion) in a way regarded as offensive." Suffering violence can provide important evidence of persecution as long as the creates "a pattern of persecution closely tied to the petitioner."

Korablina also needed to demonstrate that a person in her situation would have a reasonable fear of persecution. The Immigration Judge admitted that Korablina did indeed fear persecution. But he held that while she suffered a "serious [form ] of discrimination because she is Jewish," her experience did not amount to persecution.

The Appeals Court held that Korablina meets all the tests and that the cumulation of experiences she suffered surely proves discrimination. The Court politely told the lower courts that the earlier decision was outrageous:

"With all respect, the IJ's determination and the BIA's affirmance that Korablina experienced merely discrimination are not "supported by reasonable, substantial, and probative evidence on the record considered as a whole. The suffering inflicted on Korablina because she is Jewish was not simply a "minor disadvantage or trivial inconvenience." It amounted to "the infliction of suffering or harm upon [one] who differ[s] (in race, religion, or political opinion) in a way regarded as offensive."

The case can be found on the web at http://caselaw.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=9th&navby=case&no=9770361.