Opinion ID: 217244
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Virtually Identical Language

Text: The majority begins with Dehonzai and Toualy's virtually identical language regarding their respective beatings with a bundle of wire with a tennis ball on the end. The IJ found the linguistic similarity troubling and concluded that Dehonzai had adopted the Toualy story for his own purposes. The BIA and the majority agree. But I find myself compelled to conclude otherwise: the IJ failed to consider carefully the nature of the similarity, failed to apply adequate procedural safeguards, ignored corroborating evidence, and therefore erred. In seeking affirmance of the BIA and IJ's adverse credibility determination on the basis of similar language, the government relies in large part on Mei Chai Ye v. U.S. Dept. of Justice, 489 F.3d 517 (2d Cir.2007), where a panel of the Second Circuit upheld an adverse credibility determination based on the immigrant's use of similar language to another immigrant from another set of proceedings. Id. at 520. I agree that the case is helpful, and I would follow it. The case deserves a thorough discussion. In Ye, the petitioner Mei Chai Ye sought asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT protection on the basis of two forced abortions she claimed to have suffered in her native China. 489 F.3d at 520. In support of her application for relief, she filed a statement detailing her alleged treatment in China. Id. At a hearing on June 13, 2003, the IJ noted that Ye's statement bore certain striking similarities to a statement filed by another applicant in an entirely unrelated case. Id. The IJ requested that DHS produce redacted versions of the two statements so he could compare the two without impacting either's privacy; DHS agreed. Id. at 521. At the next hearing, DHS produced the documents (demonstrating that the IJ's recollection had been spot-on), and the IJ gave Ye's attorney a chance to respond to the similarities. 489 F.3d at 521. The attorney suggested that the similarities could be due to a pattern of practice of the Chinese government or a consistent style of translation if the statements had been translated by the same person. Id. The hearing adjourned without any resolution. Id. Another hearing followed, at which the IJ noted that he had provided the attorneys with carefully annotated versions of the statements, pointing out each of the many similarities. Id. at 522. He again sought an adequate explanation for these near-identical documents, but again no resolution occurred. Id. Still another hearing followed, at which point Ye's attorney withdrew due to a conflict, and the IJ finally issued an oral decision. Id. The IJ denied Ye any relief, finding that her credibility had been demolished by twenty-three discrete portions of the statement whose language, grammar, and order were all but identical to corresponding portions of the statement that had been filed by an unrelated applicant in an unrelated case. Id. at 522-23. The IJ specifically based this finding of unreliability on (1) Ye's failure to provide any convincing explanation for the similarities despite opportunities at multiple hearings, (2) the absence of any evidence attributing the similarity to a translator, and (3) the absence of evidence that the other petitioner might have plagiarized Ye. Id. at 523. Ye appealed this decision to the BIA, which summarily affirmed; a petition to the Second Circuit followed. Id. A panel of the Second Circuit denied Ye's petition for review, citing the IJ's careful consideration of possible reasons for the damaging similarities and his meticulous adherence to a number of procedural precautions. 489 F.3d at 524-25. Specifically, the court issued its holding in the form of a multi-pronged rule that an adverse credibility determination may be appropriate where an IJ: (1) carefully identifies any similarities; (2) closely considers the nature and number of those particular similarities . . . and (3) rigorously complies with . . . [certain] procedural protections. . . . Id. at 526. Expounding on the third prong, the court listed some specific procedural protections, recommending that an IJ allow an applicant (a) to respond to the allegedly offending similarities, (b) to investigate potential plagiarism, and (c) to consider the possibility of inaccurate or formulaic translation. Id. However, the court suggested that these enumerated protections were a floor, not a ceiling, noting that the IJ had gone much further by: (1) notifying Ye of the similarities, and providing her with copies of his annotations; (2) openly and exhaustively expressing to Ye his concerns about the inter-proceeding similarities; (3) granting Ye several opportunities to comment on those similarities; and (4) inviting Ye to offer evidence of plagiarism, inaccurate translations, or any other possible innocent explanation. Id. at 525. The court strongly suggested that adherence to the IJ's cautious and deliberate procedure was the better course of action. Id. at 527. Throughout the opinion, the court followed a general policy of reviewing an IJ's reliance on inter-proceeding similarities with an especially cautious eye. 489 F.3d at 520. Indeed, the court suggested that an IJ's full compliance with the rule above should result not in affirmance but only in deference ; on the other hand, any less rigorous approach by an IJ should be met with outright skepticism. Id. at 527. I offer an analysis under the Ye framework; given the peculiarity of finding a statement less reliable because of close corroboration, it seems only appropriate that we ought to review the procedure and analysis the IJ followed here with the especially cautious eye prescribed by the Second Circuit. First, the IJ here did not carefully identify the offending linguistic similarity before issuing his decision. Instead, he noted broadly that there is a eery [sic] similarity between what happened to Mr. Toualy and what happened to the respondent. In context, this statement doesn't even seem addressed to linguistic similarity, but rather to the timing of Dehonzai's and Toualy's arrests. The IJ's lack of clarity here contrasts sharply with the IJ's meticulous annotations in Ye. See 489 F.3d at 525. My skepticism is therefore piqued. See id. at 527. Second, the IJ did not closely consider the nature or the number of the single similarity at issue here. Had he done so, he would have noticed that Dehonzai introduced his statement with the phrase as they did for my cousin Jules Toualy and went on to refer explicitly to the Amnesty International report. Dehonzai's choice to call the government's attention to this similar language is more consistent with proper citation and comparison than with plagiarism. Also, had the IJ closely considered the similarity at issue, he would have recognized that the two documents could easily reflect the respective stories of cousins who were held at the same military camp by the same repressive regime six weeks apart, and subjected to a single instance each of the same mistreatment among other disparate abuses. The intertwined nature of the accounts at issue here stands in sharp contrast to the facts in Ye, which involved unaffiliated immigrants in unrelated proceedings whose statements matched point by point on at least twenty-three different details. See 489 F.3d at 522-23. These circumstances are different enough that they alone practically compel a different result. Indeed, the nature and number of the similarity herea single, appropriately cited instance of similar treatment occurring at the same place within a narrow time framecannot reasonably support a finding of fabrication or plagiarism. Third, the IJ did not rigorously adhere to any of the procedural protections spelled out in Ye. Contrary to the majority's conclusion, he did not afford Dehonzai any opportunity to explain the similar language, except to the extent that he allowed the following exchange to take place during cross examination: DHS: You copied that, didn't you, sir, out of an article you read about Jules Toualy, didn't you, sir? The Amnesty International article where Jules Toualy gave a statement and said, the last line he said, that was not enough for them. They beat me again with a bundle of electric wire with a tennis ball at the end. The ball continually struck my back. The exact same words that you use in your application, right, sir? Dehonzai: I apologize. In Africa when they've sent you to the police station, and when they beat you, they do, that's what the police does. You have to, they kick you. You have to be strong. And you have to crawl in water. DHS: Well, sir, there's nothing. Dehonzai: They don't really feed you, most people. I'm sorry. I've just described what they do continually all the time. Allowing the government to ask a heated, accusatory, compound question is hardly equivalent to the sort of careful, objective, and repeated prompts that characterized the IJ's approach in Ye. Cf. 489 F.3d at 520-22. And here the IJ's observation of the eery similarity between Dehonzai's and Toualy's situations, which the majority cites as providing a reasonable opportunity for Dehonzai to explain the similar language, says nothing of the similar language but instead has to do with the timing of Dehonzai's and Toualy's arrests. In fact, I can discern no procedural protections whatsoever in the IJ's approach here. Thus, all three Ye factors counsel strongly against the IJ's decision. Other factors counsel rejection of linguistic similarity as a basis for finding Dehonzai not credible. The Ye court noted at one point the danger that similarities may have been inserted into the documents by the translators rather than by the applicants themselves. 489 F.3d at 524. Given that Dehonzai testified that he did not speak English at the time his application was prepared, the IJ ought to have considered whether the similar language might be attributable to the translator rather than Dehonzai himself. More importantly, though, there is ample material in the record to suggest that the language that troubled the IJ is an accurate description of Dehonzai's experience. In fact, all of the evidence suggests that both Dehonzai and Toualy were arrested, detained, and abused by the same regime at the same military camp. The Toualy letter corroborates the familial relationship between him and Dehonzai. [14] The Amnesty International and State Department country reports corroborate the regular arrest and detention at Akouedo of journalists (including Toualy specifically) and civilians denounced for expressing their political beliefs. The country reports also demonstrate that civilians in detention were commonly beaten with objects ranging from iron bars to whips. [15] This corroborating evidence, which the IJ ignored, compels remand in my view.