Castro v. Holder, 597 F.3d 93 (2d. Cir 2010)
Argued by Anne Pilsbury. Briefed by Heather Axford and Miwako Dai.
The Second Circuit granted the Petition for Review from the IJ’s denial of asylum for Mr. Rodas-Castro, where the Court had found that the applicant’s act of reporting official corruption did not constitute a political opinion. The Second Circuit found that the Court had failed to properly consider the relevant context in which Mr. Rodas-Castro’s claim arose, and in doing so, misconstrued the concept of political opposition. The Second Circuit reminded adjudicators to engage in the necessary “complex and contextual factual inquiry” into the country’s political context when it comes to analyzing political opinion claims.