Gramatikov v. I.N.S.

• Decision Date: 03 November 1997
• Docket Number: No. 97-1453,97-1453
• Citation: 128 F.3d 619
• Parties: Miltcho GRAMATIKOV, Ivaylo Gramatikov and Vesselin Gramatikov, Petitioners, v. IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 619

128 F.3d 619

Miltcho GRAMATIKOV, Ivaylo Gramatikov and Vesselin

Gramatikov, Petitioners, v. IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE, Respondent.

No. 97-1453.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued Oct. 1, 1997.

Decided Nov. 3, 1997.

Stanley J. Horn (argued), Horn & Villasuso, Chicago, IL, for Petitioners.

Samuel Der-Yeghiayan, Immigration & Naturalization, Chicago, IL, Allen W. Hausman, David M. McConnell, Kristal A. Marlow, Department of Justice, Civil Division, Immigration Litigation, John C. Cunningham (argued), United States Department of Justice, Immigration Litigation, Washington, DC, for Respondent.

Before POSNER, Chief Judge, and ESCHBACH and COFFEY, Circuit Judges.

POSNER, Chief Judge.

A father and two sons, all illegal immigrants from Bulgaria, were denied asylum and have appealed. They claim to have been persecuted in Bulgaria because of their opposition to communism and to fear that if they return there they will again be persecuted because even though Bulgaria formally abandoned communism in 1989 along with the rest of the Soviet Union's European satellites, the "same people" are, according to the Gramatikovs, still in charge.

We do not understand the Gramatikovs to be arguing that the persecution they experienced in Bulgaria was so severe that they should be granted asylum even if they have no well-founded fear of persecution should they be returned to their country. Bucur v. INS, 109 F.3d 399, 404-05 (7th Cir.1997). The question whether their fear, even if genuine, is well founded is thus crucial and we write in an effort to stave off what is threatening to become an avalanche of groundless asylum appeals by citizens of the formerly communist nations, appeals that waste our time and the aliens' money. See, e.g., Bereza v. INS, 115 F.3d 468 (7th Cir.1997); Boykov v. INS, 109 F.3d 413 (7th Cir.1997); Nenadovic v. INS, 108 F.3d 124 (7th Cir.1997); Tzankov v. INS, 107 F.3d 516 (7th Cir.1997); Guentchev v. INS, 77 F.3d 1036 (7th Cir.1996). Routinely in these cases the immigration service requests an evaluation by the State Department of the likelihood of persecution if asylum is denied. Routinely the State Department advises the service that the formerly communist nations, having abandoned communism, no longer persecute anticommunists; and having abandoned atheism along with the other tenets of communism, no longer persecute religious people either. The advice of the State Department is not binding, either on the service or on the courts; there is perennial concern that the Department softpedals human rights violations by countries that the United States wants to have good relations with. So the alien is free to try to rebut the Department's advice, and since the rules of evidence are not applied in proceedings before the INS, e.g., Morgano v. Pilliod, 299 F.2d 217, 219 (7th Cir.1962); Villegas-Valenzuela v. INS, 103 F.3d 805, 812 (9th Cir.1996); Felzcerek v. INS, 75 F.3d 112, 116 (2d Cir.1996); Henry v. INS, 74 F.3d 1, 6 (1st Cir.1996), he need not, in casting his net for helpful evidence, feel cabined by those rules.

But when aliens try to rebut the State Department with self-serving, unsubstantiated, uncorroborated evidence about current political conditions in a country they left years ago, they will not convince the INS, and will certainly not furnish grounds upon which a reviewing court can reverse the agency given the deference that we are obliged to give decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals. INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 481 n. 1, 483-84, 112 S.Ct....