Opinion ID: 6216842
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: IJ Hearings

Text: Throughout the hearings, the IJ made multiple requests for additional supporting documents, including updated country reports, and provided Petitioner multiple opportunities to provide them. Petitioner failed to provide any updated country reports and the IJ took judicial notice of the State Department’s 2016 Human Rights Report on Mexico (which, combined with the 2014 Human Rights Report, constitutes the entirety of the country conditions evidence in the record). Despite having multiple family members locally situated in Pasadena who Petitioner claimed were aware of the incidents he described, none of them came to testify or offered a declaration on his behalf. Petitioner provided no explanation for why the family members he claimed could corroborate his story, didn’t. The IJ also sought out other RUIZ-COLMENARES V. GARLAND 9 means of confirming Petitioner’s testimony, such as medical records or photographs. But Petitioner provided nothing— he had not sought medical attention for any of his claimed injuries, nor had he taken any photographs. As outlined above, Petitioner’s description of all three robberies morphed before the IJ. The first incident grew significantly more serious from the relatively mild “bumps and bruises” described in his asylum interview to the bustedopen eyebrow and bruising of the ribs, kidney, and head later recounted to the IJ. The second incident was downplayed in his testimony before the IJ, completely omitting the physical harm or busted-open lip described in his asylum interview. And Petitioner testified that the third incident occurred in February or March of 2001, even though he had not been deported from the United States until April 17, 2001. Petitioner also repeatedly denied knowing why he was targeted for the robberies, or if he would be targeted again in the future.