Opinion ID: 3217911
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Scope of Yuan’s injuries and medical treatment

Text: Yuan first challenges the Board’s assertion that his testimony about his injuries and treatment after the October 2004 attack contradicts his personal statement and the medical evidence. The IJ had characterized this purported inconsistency as the “most important[]” reason for the adverse finding, but Yuan argues that his explanation for not fully recalling and describing his injuries and treatment—his head injury—was never considered. He further argues that his testimony was “not limited to his claim to have received an IV and stitches” and that he “described in detail much of the additional treatment he required,” leaving no material inconsistency between his testimony and his statement and medical documentation. We don’t see the “inconsistency” between the medical report and Yuan’s testimony and personal statement. We note that neither the government nor the Board ever suggested that the medical record is fabricated, and unless the mention of “surgery” and a “blood transfusion” in that report is untrue, the situation really amounts to a claimant not fully appreciating the extent of his injuries or the precise medical treatment he received. Why does this imprecision matter? It might be a different situation if Yuan was accused of exaggerating his injuries at the hands of the family No. 15-2834 11 planning agents, but how would he benefit by minimizing those injuries? Regardless, Yuan’s testimony that physicians had to “open” up his hand “and find the veins” because a bone had been cracked and a nerve severed essentially describes a “surgery.” And as for omitting the “blood transfusion,” Yuan did explain that he received an IV (which he believed contained “proteins”) because he had lost a lot of blood. That Yuan may not have known the content of the fluids he was receiving intravenously does not undermine his credibility. Rather, there are several potential explanations, such as his head injury (which rendered him unconscious for at least some of the time he was hospitalized), his lack of sophistication about medical procedures, and the translation of both the medical report and Yuan’s testimony from Chinese to English. See Lishou Wang, 804 F.3d at 858 (concluding that IJ had improperly discredited petitioner’s testimony based on his “innocent confusion” over name of medical procedure even though petitioner’s description of procedure was consistent throughout his testimony); Kueviakoe v. U.S. Att’y. Gen., 567 F.3d 1301, 1305 (11th Cir. 2009) (rejecting as neither plausible nor material Board’s finding of inconsistency between petitioner’s use of word “truck” in his application and “car” in his testimony and noting that petitioner’s words had been translated to English on both occasions). In fact, when the subject of his treatment came up in the first hearing, Yuan stated that he “couldn’t say what kind of treatment … they gave me because I’m, I’m not educated enough to understand.” Yuan’s description of the treatment he received is not inconsistent with how a lay person might describe a blood transfusion (receiving an IV of proteins for loss of blood) or minor surgery (cutting open 12 No. 15-2834 a hand and giving stitches), nor did the Board or IJ grapple with any of these potential explanations. B. Yuan’s transportation to the hospital after the attack Yuan next argues that the Board mischaracterized the record in finding that his testimony was inconsistent with his documentary evidence regarding how he arrived at the hospital after his injury. Once again, it is difficult to see any significant inconsistency; there is no disagreement by the government that Yuan was transported to the hospital by someone. In his personal statement Yuan says that “the police” took him to the hospital, and when he testified he said that an ambulance was called for him. As Yuan argues, whether the police or an ambulance took him to the hospital is irrelevant in light of his larger claim that he was beaten and slashed by agents from the birth-control office, prompting his brother and mother to call the police for help. See Kueviakoe, 567 F.3d at 1305 (noting that use of inconsistent terms to describe police vehicle was immaterial, especially where “all of the other pertinent information remained the same”). Moreover, the IJ wrongly asserted that the letters from Yuan’s brother and parents further contradict his accounts of how he reached the hospital. According to the IJ, Yuan’s brother said that he took Yuan to the hospital, but, in fact, Yuan’s brother wrote, “I called the police and my parents to come and hurried my brother to Lianjiang County Hospital for emergency care.” Yuan’s parents similarly stated, “We called for help and took him to the emergency aid and saved his life.” Both of these letters have been translated from Chinese to English, so we think the IJ should have been cautious about an overly technical parsing of language. See Kueviakoe, No. 15-2834 13 567 F.3d at 1305 (noting that no important inconsistency could be found based on word choice when petitioner’s words were translated from French to English). In their letters neither Yuan’s brother nor his parents state that they personally drove Yuan to the hospital. Rather, the statements suggest that the family simply made sure that Yuan was taken to the hospital—a reading that is consistent with Yuan’s explanation that his family called the police, who summoned the ambulance, and then the family followed the ambulance as it transported Yuan to the hospital. Once again, the salient point is that no one disputes that Yuan’s injuries required emergency hospitalization. That greater detail is provided in live testimony than was included in an asylum application is not a reason to reject a petitioner’s testimony as not credible. See Tarraf v. Gonzales, 495 F.3d 525, 532 (7th Cir. 2007); Kllokoqi v. Gonzales, 439 F.3d 336, 342 (7th Cir. 2005) C. Yuan’s statements about harassment by authorities at his workplace Yuan next challenges the Board’s conclusion that his testimony regarding harassment by family planning agents at his workplace was inconsistent with his personal statement. The third paragraph of Yuan’s personal statement, as amended during the final hearing, reads as follows: However, in September 2004, agents came again to my home to check why she didn’t go to her exami- nation. When they couldn’t find her they came to me to find out where she went, but I refused to tell them as I was opposed to the government’s coer- cive family controls and I was upset over what they did to my fiancée. The agents believed that I knew where she was and although they left that day, they 14 No. 15-2834 continued to harass me by coming to my workplace and questioning me there as well. I became angry with them because my girlfriend’s issue had noth- ing to do with me and then I accused them of kill- ing my child and now maybe they want to kill my fiancée, too. They cursed me and I cursed them back. Then they warned me that if I did not bring her to them in a month that I would suffer serious consequences. Yuan argues that his testimony at the hearing—that he had not actually spoken to the officials when they came to his workplace and that his account of becoming angry and cursing the officials referred to their visit to his home, not his workplace—clarified, rather than contradicted, his personal statement. Given the placement of the reference to the workplace visit in the middle of a paragraph that primarily is about the officials’ visit to his home, it seems plausible that the cursing and yelling describes what happened at his home, not work. Moreover, we don’t perceive an inconsistency between saying, “Government officials harassed me by coming to my work and asking questions,” and Yuan’s explanation. We can easily imagine a worker describing as harassment the presence of government officials at his workplace asking about him. Even if the ambiguity is resolved as an inconsistency, the inconsistency cannot support a general finding that Yuan isn’t credible. See Hongting Liu v. Lynch, 788 F.3d 737, 742 (7th Cir. 2015) (concluding that petitioner’s technically inconsistent testimony regarding timing of her visa and passport applications did not support adverse credibility finding). No. 15-2834 15 D. Yuan’s testimony about his brother’s whereabouts Last, Yuan contends that the fourth inconsistency identified by the IJ—the whereabouts of his brother—was explained by his testimony that he believed he was being asked where his brother was at that moment rather than where his brother was living. Yuan does not argue that his testimony was consistent, and for good reason. His testimony on this point is confusing, if not blatantly inconsistent. While this may be the strongest evidence supporting a finding that Yuan was not entirely credible as a witness, the Board did not make any effort to explain why Yuan’s evasiveness about his brother was sufficiently material to warrant discrediting his entire claim for relief. See Hongting Liu, 788 F.3d at 742; see also Krishnapillai, 563 F.3d at 617 (noting obligation, even after REAL ID Act, to distinguish between inconsistencies that are material and those that are not); Kadia, 501 F.3d at 822 (same). And, as Yuan argues, his explanation was not even considered. At least a plausible reading of the hearing transcript is that Yuan was confused about what exactly he was being asked, and his responses indicate that while his brother technically lived with him in Indiana, he often left their home for lengthy periods to seek employment elsewhere. Finally, Yuan argues that the Board erred as a matter of law by not considering the corroborating evidence he presented. Yuan also disputes the IJ’s faulting him for not providing a letter from his girlfriend. Since the Board did not address the IJ’s finding regarding corroborating evidence, we will not assess that question in the first instance. Indeed, the government has specifically asked that, if we overturn 16 No. 15-2834 the adverse credibility finding, we remand the case to the agency to assess Yuan’s eligibility on the merits.