Opinion ID: 793247
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Sall's Asylum Claim

Text: 21 The Attorney General may grant asylum to persons meeting the definition of refugee. See 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b) (granting discretion to Attorney General); Id. § 1101(a)(42) (defining refugee). If Sall's testimony is truthful, he has demonstrated past persecution on account of his race, which is a protected class. Id. § 1101(a)(42). He testified that he was forced at gunpoint from his house and homeland by soldiers who were motivated by race and murdered his brothers. At issue here is whether substantial evidence supports the IJ's finding that Sall's testimony and documentary evidence did not adequately support his claim. See, e.g., Yun-Zui Guan v. Gonzales, 432 F.3d at 394. 22 Because the IJ's errors in relation to the question of firm resettlement relate so closely to the merits of Sall's asylum claim, we cannot confidently state that the IJ will deny asylum if we remand. See Xiao Ji Chen, 434 F.3d 144, 161. If one believes, as it seems the IJ did, that Sall presented forged Red Cross documentation of a stay in a refugee camp, his overall story of persecution becomes deeply implausible. See In Re O-D-, 21 I. & N. Dec. 1079, 1083 (BIA 1998) (holding that asylum applicant's submission of false documents supported adverse credibility finding); cf. 8 U.S.C. § 1324c(a)(2) (declaring it unlawful to use, ... or to provide any forged, counterfeit, altered, or falsely made document in order to ... obtain a benefit under the INA). We cannot know what the IJ would have found had she believed Sall's Red Cross letter to be legitimate—or at least potentially legitimate—instead of obviously bogus because it issued from the purportedly wrong region. We therefore remand so that IJ may consider whether Sall qualifies for asylum now that the Red Cross letter no longer appears objectionable on its face. 13