Opinion ID: 540898
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Incredibility Requirement.

Text: 39 Although the stricter standard of review employed in the Ninth Circuit may determine the outcome of some cases, the more troubling doctrinal development has been the creation of judicial fictions--all in the guise of statutory interpretation--that accord a steadily increasing presumption of verity to aliens' contentions with respect to each evidentiary requirement. An illustration of this dynamic is the movement toward an incredibility requirement. An alien must provide specific evidence of persecution, and  'mere assertions of possible fear' are insufficient. Sarvia-Quintanilla v. INS, 767 F.2d 1387, 1392 (9th Cir.1985) (quoting Shoaee v. INS, 704 F.2d 1079, 1084 (9th Cir.1983)). Lest this burden be too great, our circuit has determined that an alien's own testimony is controlling if credible and supported by general documentary evidence that the threats should be considered serious. Artiga-Turcios v. INS, 829 F.2d 720, 723 (9th Cir.1987); see Bolanos-Hernandez, 767 F.2d at 1285. 40 Other circuits have been chary of according too much weight to an alien's own statements, for the obvious reason that they tend to be self-serving. See, e.g., Gumbol, 815 F.2d at 412 (defining the permissible parameters under which an alien's own unsubstantiated testimony will be accepted); Carvajal-Munoz v. INS, 743 F.2d 562, 577 (7th Cir.1984) (permitting alien's statements only under certain circumstances). 41 By grafting on the statute a doctrinal rule that the INS must make a formal credibility determination, however, we have put in place a requirement that will frequently trip up even the most diligent INS adjudicator. If, as in the case before us, the immigration judge makes no determination that the alien's testimony is not credible, this circuit presume[s] that they have found the petitioner's testimony credible. Artiga-Turcios, 829 F.2d at 723. 1 Thus, to proceed with deportation, an immigration judge must explicitly find the alien's testimony incredible. The absence of an adversarial factfinding process 2 makes such a showing extremely difficult. 42