Opinion ID: 626123
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: BIA's Consideration of State Department Reports

Text: The BIA stated that it accorded special weight to the U.S. Department of State's Profile of Asylum Claims and Country Conditions in China (May 2007) (hereinafter 2007 Profile), noting that State Department Profiles are highly probative evidence and are usually the best source of information on conditions in foreign nations. Matter of H-L-H-, 25 I. & N. Dec. at 213. Huang, supported by the amici, contends that the BIA erred by placing undue reliance on the 2007 Profile, cherry-picked a select few passages to the [2007 Profile] and ignored inherent contradictions in it. Brief for Petitioners at 31. Our case law has already approved the BIA's consideration and use of State Department country reports. We have noted that State Department reports are probative, Tu Lin v. Gonzales, 446 F.3d 395, 400 (2d Cir.2006), and are usually the best available source of information on country conditions, Xiao Ji Chen, 471 F.3d at 341-42 (internal quotation marks omitted); that the BIA is entitled to accord greater weight to State Department reports in the record than to countervailing documentary evidence, Jian Hui Shao, 546 F.3d at 152; and that the weight afforded to the evidence, including State Department reports, lies largely within the discretion of the [agency], Xiao Ji Chen, 471 F.3d at 342 (internal quotation marks and alterations in original omitted). Here, the BIA stated that it had considered the State Department documents on country conditions along with the particularized evidence presented by [Huang], and concluded that Huang failed to demonstrate a well-founded fear that the family planning policy will be enforced against her through means constituting persecution upon her return to China. Matter of H-L-H-, 25 I. & N. Dec. at 213. This use of the State Department documents was not error, although, as previously discussed, the error with respect to the IJ's finding of coercive sterilization requires a remand for reconsideration of the BIA's ultimate conclusion concerning the objective component of a reasonable fear of persecution.