Unable or Unwilling to Control

29 I&N Dec. 307 (BIA 2025) · 2025

A single attempt to report an incident of harm by private actors to local police, without further harm from the police themselves or evidence of widespread collusion with alleged persecutors, does not establish that the government as a whole is unable or unwilling to protect a respondent from persecution.

One police report, standing alone, is insufficient to prove government protection failure. Applicants must demonstrate systemic inability or unwillingness, not a single episode.

29 I&N Dec. 642 (BIA 2026) · 2026

(1) A 3-day detention during which respondent was beaten once but did not sustain significant injury does not rise to the level of persecution. (2) A government's general deference to tribal mechanisms for resolving tribal conflict does not indicate the government is unable or unwilling to control persecutors within a tribe.

Harm severity threshold: a brief detention with a single, non-serious beating may not amount to persecution. Government tolerance of customary or tribal dispute resolution is not tantamount to complicity in persecution.