Opinion ID: 2980389
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: IJ’s Credibility Determination

Text: Roblero-Berduo challenges the IJ’s finding that part of his testimony lacked credibility. In her opinion denying Petitioner’s applications, the IJ explicitly assigned positive credibility to Roblero-Berduo’s testimony as a whole. Specifically, the IJ found Roblero-Berduo’s account of his father’s kidnapping—the incident she considered central to his applications—credible. However, the IJ found other areas of Roblero-Berduo’s testimony incredible. Those areas included RobleroBerduo’s contention that his siblings suffered religious persecution, which he offered late on crossexamination and which the IJ found lacking in support elsewhere in the record; the motivation ascribed to the murder of his cousin; and his assertion that he attended church in Detroit while living in California. The reservations the IJ expressed about Petitioner’s testimony played no part in the BIA’s decision to affirm. The BIA reasoned that the documentary evidence and the fact that Petitioner’s family has remained in Guatemala since 1992 controverted Petitioner’s claim that he was likely to suffer religious persecution if removed. By omitting any reference to the IJ’s credibility determination, the BIA signaled that it would have reached the same result even if the IJ had rated Roblero-Berduo’s testimony as entirely credible. Since Roblero-Berduo’s credibility did not affect the Board’s decision, and because the IJ rated the most crucial portion of Petitioner’s testimony as 8 No. 10-3380 positive, Petitioner’s challenge to the IJ’s credibility decision does not determine the disposition of his petition.1