Opinion ID: 797143
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The household registries

Text: 82 The IJ also erred, at least in part, in finding discrepancies between Lin's testimony and the household registries submitted as corroborating evidence. The IJ observed that the registries appeared to show that Lin's second son, born in 1986, whom Lin stated was registered only after the payment of a 6,000 yuan fine in December 1990, had in fact been registered with the other members of the family on February 15, 1990. That this date is inconsistent with Lin's testimony (1) that the fine was paid in December 1990, and (2) that his second son was not registered until after the payment, is clear. But the existence of both sons, and the violation of the one-child policy that the second birth constituted, is corroborated by Lin's testimony in 1994 and by Lin's wife's affidavit, which the IJ appeared, in large measure, to credit. Furthermore, there is no inconsistency as to the fine required to register that son, nor as to his registration some four years after his birth. As a result, this discrepancy appears to be the sort of collateral detail that the IJ can consider, but that should not, in itself, undercut Lin's central claims concerning his wife's abortions and his own threatened sterilization. See Secaida-Rosales, 331 F.3d at 308. 83 More troubling to the validity of the IJ's ultimate conclusions are the IJ's comments regarding a second household registry, which was not admitted into evidence and which, with the exception of dates written in Arabic numerals, was written entirely in Chinese. The IJ stated in his decision that, although he could not read this second registry, he was able to determine from the dates that it was inconsistent with the translated document that was admitted into evidence. The first problem with this finding is the IJ's reliance on non-record evidence, which the BIA has prohibited. See In re S-M-J-, 21 I. & N. Dec. 722, 728 (BIA 1997) (stating, in the context of a country report not included in the record, that any evidence relied upon by the Immigration Judge must be included in the record so that the Board can meaningfully review any challenge to the Immigration Judge's decision on appeal). But, even were we to ignore the failure to put the registry in the record, it is patently improper to draw conclusions from a document written in a foreign language in the absence of a certified translation. See Augustin v. Sava, 735 F.2d 32, 37 (2d Cir.1984); 8 C.F.R. § 103.2 (Any document containing foreign language submitted to the Service shall be accompanied by a full English language translation which the translator has certified as complete and accurate, and by the translator's certification that he or she is competent to translate from the foreign language into English.). 84 Such conclusions cannot be treated as reliable. This lack of reliability is borne out by our own examination of the Arabic numerals legible on the untranslated household registry. To us, this document reveals no apparent discrepancies that might warrant the IJ's findings. The IJ's conclusion concerning this second registry is, therefore, not supported by the evidence. Moreover, we cannot avoid the concern that the IJ's apparent problems with this untranslated registry might have affected, inappropriately, the weight he placed on the earlier-described discrepancy regarding the registration of Lin's second son. 85