The Board of Immigration Appeals has sustained DHS's appeal from a grant of withholding of removal to a Russian respondent who was struck by police as a 17-year-old, holding that the immigration judge erred by treating the respondent's status as a minor as itself sufficient to elevate the harm to persecution.
The Board held that age is one relevant factor in the cumulative persecution analysis but does not create a categorical rule, and that the calibration warranted here was slight given the respondent was only months from turning 18. The Board also held that a pattern-or-practice theory of persecution requires an objective, not subjective, showing of a clear probability of harm, and remanded for the immigration judge to address nexus and reconsider the claim, including CAT protection, under the correct standards.
The full text of Matter of I-U-V- can be found here: https://www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1455276/dl?inline