A "Well-Founded Fear" of Persecution

In its recent opinion in INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca,' the United States Supreme Court has apparently cleared up a troublesome area of immigration law and procedure, namely, the burden of proof that an alien claiming asylum has to meet. In this case the Court held that a of persecution meant exactly what it said: a well-founded fear of persecution. One reason for the previous confusion in this area is that an alien in the United States claiming persecution, or a threat of persecution, in her homeland has two avenues of relief to pursue. One is relief from deportation under section 243(h) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act which reads in part: