Opinion ID: 797838
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Result of the Erroneous Adverse Credibility Determination

Text: 45 Consequently, we must analyze the effects of the IJ's erroneous adverse credibility determination. As explained previously, the first step in an IJ's evaluation of an asylum application is the credibility determination. Begu, 162 Fed.Appx. at 427 (citing Yu, 364 F.3d at 703). We conclude that the IJ's erroneous adverse credibility determination permeated and infected the IJ's subsequent factual findings and legal conclusions as to whether Mapouya could meet his burden on the question of persecution for the asylum and withholding of removal claims, as well as his claim under The Convention. 18 46 For example, the letters Mapouya presented strongly corroborated his fear of future persecution and torture, but the IJ failed to acknowledge the letters in his final order. One letter attests to the fact that the rival factions of Sassou-Nguesso and Lissouba continue to persecute their (political) opposition, especially on ethnic grounds. The other letter chillingly states that Sassou-Nguesso's forces are still looking for you in the Congo and that Mapouya's name is on the wanted list at the Ministry of the Interior as witnessed personally by the letter's author. During the hearing, the IJ focused only on trying to understand how Mapouya could refer to one of the letter writers as his brother when the men are not blood relatives. What should have been a simple concept to understand (using my brother as a salutation conveying great affection rather than blood relation) became the issue, based on the IJ's distrust of Mapouya, not the letters' contents and implications. We decline, however, to make an affirmative credibility finding of our own, because immigration cases are, by nature, so fact-driven. Instead, the Court instructs that the case be remanded, and we urge that a different IJ to make his or her own credibility determination about Mapouya's relief requests. We note that even if we were to make a favorable credibility determination on the instant review, we would still be precluded, under Ventura and Thomas, from ultimately deciding whether to grant Mapouya's asylum claim; the IJ's ultimate conclusion on the asylum question reached only the first prong of the two-part eligible-deserving asylum analysis. See, e.g., Ben Hamida, 478 F.3d at 736; Chen, 447 F.3d at 472. The IJ found that Mapouya was not eligible for asylum, but neither analyzed nor answered the second question of whether Mapouya deserved asylum. The latter question is, therefore, a matter of first instance appropriately decided by the IJ and BIA. The IJ must make the proper legal inquiries and conclusions on Mapouya's asylum request after additional investigation or explanation, Thomas, 126 S.Ct. at 1615, and, accordingly, his or her own credibility determination. 47