Sever Vaduva v. Immigration and Naturalization Service

MANION, Circuit Judge.

Sever Vaduva was 25 years old when he left Romania in August 1993 and entered the United States on a crewman’s visa. He later applied for asylum. Although the Board of Immigration Appeals denied asylum, he has a leg up on most petitioners seeking review because the Board found that on at least one occasion Vaduva had experienced persecution while in Romania. Under the law, that finding created a rebuttable presumption in favor of granting Vaduva asylum. See Skalak v. INS, 944 F.2d 364, 365 (7th Cir.1991) (“Past persecution creates a presumption in favor of granting…