Opinion ID: 2966265
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Cuko’s Chain of Custody Testimony

Text: With respect to the alleged discrepancy in Cuko’s accounts as to how he obtained his Democratic Party membership card as a hearing exhibit, the inconsistency in his accounts is self-evident, and the IJ afforded Cuko adequate opportunity to explain them. That said, the BIA’s refusal to mention the IJ’s chain-of-custody rationale as a ground for its affirmance is not surprising. When an IJ bases an adverse credibility determination on alleged testimonial discrepancies, he or she must be especially “‘sensitive to the complexities of receiving testimony through a translator,’” and the possibility “that the alleged discrepancy resulted from confusion, and not an attempt at fabrication.” Heng v. Gonzales , 493 F.3d 46, 49 (1st Cir. 2007) (citing Giday v. Gonzales , 434 F.3d 543, 549 n.2 (7th Cir. 2006)). When the IJ asked Cuko to explain why he first testified that his father-in-law had obtained the membership card from the party archives after Cuko arrived in the United States, Cuko stated that he had been “confused,” since other documents comprising Exhibit 5 were so obtained, but then he had recalled that it was not necessary for his father-in-law to get the card from the archives because Cuko already had the card in his possession before he left Albania. A close review of the record amply supports the plausibility of Cuko’s explanation. The crux of this inquiry was whether Cuko was a Democratic Party supporter, and the fact that the Party issued this card would tend to prove that fact. The particulars of whether Cuko’s father-in-law retrieved the card directly from the Party archives, from Cuko’s home, or from Cuko himself, are not particularly important to that core inquiry. Moreover, even the attorneys experienced considerable confusion over this line of questioning, and expressed doubts whether Cuko had even been shown the correct hearing exhibits during his previous testimony. Rather than take steps to insure that Cuko’s explanation was not bona fide, however, the IJ simply forged ahead. If even attorneys proficient in English were so befuddled, we can hardly have great confidence that Cuko was not. Id.