Opinion ID: 769714
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: What type of proof do I need to submit?

Text: 34 Q. Sir, is that no? Do you have anything in Court today? 35 A. No. Today? No. 36 . . . 37 Q. Sir, is there is there any reason your father isn't here in Court today to corroborate your testimony? 38 . . . 39 A. Well, I did not feel that it was very relevant for him to come with me today because I do carry a veryseparate asylum application and for him to be here today -I didn't feel it was relevant. 40 It takes approximately 45 minutes to drive from downtown Yorba Linda to downtown Los Angeles, where the hearing before the IJ was held. The IJ, INS attorney, and BIA were therefore puzzled as to why a critical corroborating witness was not called by Petitioner to bolster his case. Petitioner's testimony included allegations suggesting that the police had arrested him in part as a way to embarrass his father, who was a politically active Sikh. Petitioner also testified that his father witnessed many of the events described, and had first-hand knowledge of much of the persecution. Indeed, Petitioner's father was the only witness to some events that are at the core of his asylum application. For example, only Petitioner's father heard the Indian Police's alleged threats that they would harass Petitioner after his release from custody. 41 On appeal, Petitioner submits that he and his lawyer made a poor strategic decision by declining to bring his father to the hearing, but argues that because an alien's own testimony alone can suffice to support an asylum claim, it was improper for the BIA to discredit his testimony on that basis. 1 Petitioner's argument is based on his reading of the relevant INS regulations, 8 C.F.R. S 208.13(a), and our case law. 42 The plain text of the INS's regulations belies Petitioner's interpretation of them. Under 8 C.F.R. S 208.13, the burden of proof is on the applicant for asylum to establish that he or she is a refugee as defined in section 101(a)(42) of the Act. The testimony of the applicant, if credible , may be sufficient to sustain the burden of proof without corroboration. (emphasis added). This language plainly indicates that if the trier of fact either does not believe the applicant or does not know what to believe, the applicant's failure to corroborate his testimony can be fatal to his asylum application. Thus, the regulations unambiguously contemplate cases where an applicant's testimony alone will not satisfy his burden of proof. 2 As we explain below, those cases include instances where an applicant inexplicably fails to present easily available, material, non-duplicative, corroborating evidence to support his asylum claim. 43 Crediting Petitioner's testimony, the testimony of his father would have been highly probative, non-duplicative, corroborating evidence. And no reading of the INS's regulations or Ninth Circuit case law supports Petitioner's conclusion that his failure to bring forward easily available corroborating evidence has no bearing on his asylum application. Mejia-Paiz v. INS, 111 F.3d 720, 724 (9th Cir. 1997), is the only Ninth Circuit opinion that squarely confronts a situation in which an IJ based an adverse credibility finding on an alien'sfailure to produce readily accessible, material corroborating evidence. In that case, the IJ based an adverse credibility finding on the petitioner's inability to provide documentary evidence that he was a member of the Jehovah's Witness Church. Under a caption entitled The IJ's Credibility Finding, we wrote: 44 First, the IJ found that petitioner could have offered proof that he was a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses but did not. The IJ reasoned that establishing membership through either a local or foreign church would have been a relatively uncomplicated task. We agree. In fact, the petitioner himself claimed in his application for asylum that many of his problems were due to the fact that there was proof of his membership in the files of the Jehovah's Witnesses Church, presumably in Nicaragua. Petitioner cannot have it both ways. Proving one's membership in a church does not pose the type of particularized evidentiary burden that would excuse corroboration. 45 Id. at 723-24. Thus, in Mejia-Paiz, the Court determined that where material corroborating evidence was easily available to the asylum seeker, i.e., it does not pose the type of particularized evidentiary burden that would excuse corroboration, failure to produce such evidence can constitute substantial evidence supporting an adverse credibility determination. Membership records contained in the files of a Nicaraguan church were easily available enough for the trier of fact to expect their production. 46 In the case at bar, it would have been much easier for Petitioner to produce his father's testimony than it would have been for Mejia-Paiz to produce evidence of his membership in a Nicaraguan church. Petitioner unambiguously testified that his father was living in a nearby suburb. Petitioner's father had an asylum application pending before the INS, and therefore had no reason to fear attending the hearing before the IJ. Petitioner never testified that his father was ill, out of town, or otherwise indisposed. And while it certainly would have been preferable for the IJ to adjourn the hearing so that Petitioner's father could be called to testify, Petitioner's counsel never moved for such an adjournment, and Petitioner, quite sensibly, does not argue on appeal that the IJ plainly erred by failing to order an adjournment sua sponte. It appears from the record that counsel for the INS believed that the father's testimony would differ from the son's, and made an issue out of the father's absence for that reason. The IJ and BIA might well have inferred that Petitioner knew that his father could not corroborate Petitioner's testimony, and chose not to call him as a witness for that reason. Such an inference would not have been unreasonable. 47 We do not read Mejia-Paiz to reject all limitations on an IJ's ability to surprise an asylum applicant with an adverse credibility determination. The petitioner must be given an opportunity at his IJ hearing to explain his failure to produce material corroborating evidence. 3 Moreover, the corroborating evidence must be both material to the petitioner's asylum claim and non-duplicative of other corroboration. Thus, where an applicant produces credible corroborating evidence to but tress an aspect of his own testimony, an IJ may not base an adverse credibility determination on the applicant's failure to produce additional evidence that would further support that particular claim 4 . Finally, as we have indicated, the evidence must be easily available. As we held in Lopez-Reyes v. INS, 79 F.3d 908, 912 (9th Cir. 1996), it is inappropriate to base an adverse credibility determination on an applicant's inability to obtain corroborating affidavits from relatives or acquaintances living outside ofthe United States -such corroboration is almost never easily available. 48 In conclusion, where the IJ has reason to question the applicant's credibility, and the applicant fails to produce nonduplicative, material, easily available corroborating evidence and provides no credible explanation for such failure, an adverse credibility finding will withstand appellate review. However, because of the due process concerns discussed below, we remand for a new hearing in the case at bar.