Aminta Barco Corado; Karen Aquino Barco; Jose Aquino Barco, Petitioners, v. John Ashcroft, Attorney General of the United States of America, Respondent.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 20917

Barco Corado and her two children Karen Aquino Corado and Jose Aquino Corado, citizens of Guatemala, applied for asylum three months after arriving in the United States on the grounds that Corado and her children had a “well founded fear of persecution” and for their lives based on their political opinion. Upon appearing before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) the immigration judge’s decision to deny their applications for asylum and withhold their removal was upheld.

Barco Corado established that while in Guatemala, she was raised by her uncle who, along with herself, was a visible member of the political group Union del Centro Nacional (UCN).  Corado was told that because of her uncle’s affiliation he was killed by policeman aligned with the political party, Movimiento de Accion Solidaria (MAS).  Subsequently, Corado was also visited several times by MAS who told Corado that she and her children would be harmed or killed if she didn’t provide them information about UCN.  Each visit from MAS escalated in the severity of the threats and on the fourth visit, Corado was beaten and told that she would suffer the same fate as her uncle if did not comply.  Consequently, Corado fleed two days later with her children to the United States where she applied for asylum.

The immigration judge’s decision was based on the conclusion that Barco Corado had failed to show that her political opinion had caused her to suffer sufficient past persecution in Guatamala thus rendering no credibly findings regarding her testimony. The IJ stated that Corado’s claim that the visits of four members of MAS to her home, resulting once in her beating that did not need hospitalization, did not “constitute a pattern and practice of mistreatment that rises to the level of persecution."  Corado argues that the definition of persecution used by the IJ is an impermissible definition, for while she did not need medical attention as a result of her beating, her life was threatened on account of her political opinion by government agents of Guatemala. 

When brought to the United States Court of Appeal for the Eighth Circuit, the court tool the opinion of Corado when deciding how to handle the definition of persecution.  The court stated, “We have never held that a specific, credible, and immediate threat of death on account of political opinion is outside the definition of "persecution," just because it occurs during a single incident.”  The court further stated that they actively define persecution to include the threat of death.

In light of this, the US Court of Appeal for the Eighth Circuit granted Corado’s petition and remanded the case to the BIA once again for further consideration in response to the correct standard of the definition of persecution.