Opinion ID: 2716505
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Duque's testimony

Text: Duque testified that he and Gladys had lived together from the date of their marriage until April 30, 2009, when they had a problem in the second immigration appointment. According to Duque, Gladys was having an affair with another man. Hernández -- Duque's friend and witness -- told him that Gladys had moved to -5- another town to live with the man with whom she was having an affair. Duque testified that, upon hearing this news, he immediately filed for divorce. On June 5, 2009, Duque and Gladys divorced, and she married her new partner on June 28, 2009. Duque was asked why Gladys testified that she did not live with Duque and that he had paid her to marry him so that he could obtain immigration benefits. Duque responded that Gladys was lying because she wanted to get rid of him due to her affair. Duque denied having admitted at an earlier hearing that he never lived with Gladys. Though Duque alleged that Gladys's five-year-old son Javier lived with them, Duque could not recall the child's last name or the name of Javier's father, and he stated that he never celebrated Javier's birthday with him. Duque testified that he and Gladys lived in an apartment on Wilson Street, and that his friend, Hernández, had visited them at the apartment several times for social occasions, such as Duque's birthday in 2008. Duque indicated that Hernández had known Gladys prior to her meeting Duque and that Hernández had, in fact, introduced Gladys to Duque. Duque, however, could not remember where he was first introduced to Gladys. Next, Duque claimed that his other friend, Landénez -- who would later testify in his support -- had met with Gladys and Duque two to three times and that Landénez had attended his 2008 -6- birthday party. The IJ pointed out that Duque previously claimed that only four people, of which Landénez was not one, had attended his birthday party. Duque responded that he might have been mistaken, but that he was certain Landénez had met Gladys on his birthday in 2006. As evidence of his legitimate marriage to Gladys, Duque asserted that at the time of the submission of his first petition -- i.e., the joint I-751 petition submitted with Gladys -- he proffered a 2007 lease agreement, a joint bank account statement, a joint medical insurance plan, and joint Sears and JC Penney credit cards. Though he had lived at the apartment since 2005, Duque testified that he did not have a lease from before 2007 because the owner had not required one until that time. Duque claimed that he did not have a lease for 2008, 2009, and 2010 because he told his landlord he was thinking of moving elsewhere due to troubles with Gladys and the owner did not require him to sign a new lease. The IJ noted that Duque had failed to provide the Immigration Court with any documentary evidence of a shared life with Gladys –- a task he acknowledged he was required to fulfill -– and that he had failed to submit any of the documents he claimed to have given to the CIS interviewer. In response, Duque testified that he believed that the IJ would have all the evidence that was in his file from the submission of his joint I-751, and that he -7- wanted the IJ to consider the evidence filed earlier as part of his joint I-751, though he was unable to recall precisely what evidence he had previously submitted. The IJ confronted Duque with Gladys's adverse statements during her CIS interview that she never lived with Duque and that he paid her money to marry him. The IJ questioned Duque on whether, after originally denying Gladys's statements at the interview, he had recanted his story to the interviewer and admitted Gladys's statements to be true. Duque claimed to not remember his previous change of heart.