032127P.pdf   07/07/2004  Yola Rife  v.  John Ashcroft
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  03-2127
   Agency   
   Petition for Review - Immigration. Petitioners, citizens of Azerbaijan, 
   firmly resettled in Israel before coming to the U.S. and were not eligible 
   for asylum; claim that they were refugees from Israel must be rejected as 
   without merit, as the Israeli government allowed them to enter the 
   country, issued them passports and took no adverse action against them 
   when they openly exhibited their Christianity; slurs and harassment from 
   private citizens did not constitute persecution; claim of a well-founded 
   fear of future persecution based on legislation pending before the Knesset 
   which would criminalize evangelical proselytizing must be rejected on 
   the record; claim that removal to Azerbaijan should be withheld based on 
   likelihood they would be persecuted for their religious beliefs or political 
   actions rejected; the Illegal Immigration Reform And Immigrant 
   Responsibility Act of 1996 removed the statutory bases for this court's 
   decision in Safie v. INS, 25 F.3d 636 (8th Cir. 1994), with respect to the 
   effect the timely filing of a petition for review has on a voluntary 
   departure order; nothing in the Act precludes a court from staying the 
   voluntary removal portion of the BIA's order; standards applying to the 
   grant of a stay of removal under the Act also apply to the grant of a stay 
   of voluntary departure; however, in order to be eligible for the relief, the 
   petitioner must file a timely request for a stay of voluntary departure, and 
   the cou