Opinion ID: 2612
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Unauthenticated Official Documents

Text: Li's claim of past persecution and feared future persecution found its strongest corroboration in a group of purportedly official documents that (1) had authorized her 2000 arrest and the seizure of Falun Gong materials from her home, and (2) now authorize her arrest upon return to China. If these documents are as represented, i.e., if Li was in fact arrested for Falun Gong activities and if Chinese officials are now looking to arrest Li upon her return to China, this evidence might cast Li's testimony in a decidedly more favorable light. The IJ never considered this possibility. She concluded that the documents were entitled to no weight because they were not authenticated pursuant to relevant regulations. While the IJ did not identify the regulations relied upon, we presume that she was referring to 8 C.F.R. § 287.6, which generally requires official records from foreign countries to be authenticated by (1) an official publication thereof, or (2) a copy attested by an officer so authorized. 8 C.F.R. § 287.6(b)(1). In Cao He Lin v. United States Dep't of Justice , decided after the challenged agency ruling in this case, this court held that an IJ may not dismiss evidence based merely on an applicant's failure to authenticate it pursuant to [§ 287.6], 428 F.3d at 405. This rule derives from our recognition that asylum applicants can not always reasonably be expected to have an authenticated document from an alleged persecutor and, therefore, the BIA's authentication regulation is not the exclusive means of authenticating records before an immigration judge. Qin Wen Zheng v. Gonzales, 500 F.3d 143, 148 (2d Cir.2007) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Xue Deng Jiang v. Gonzales, 474 F.3d 25, 29 (1st Cir.2007) (identifying error where IJ rejected documents solely because they were not authenticated in strict conformity with the regulation (emphasis in original)). In affording an IJ discretion to determine documents' authenticity by reference to the totality of the evidence, we have ruled that such evidence includes any adverse finding respecting a petitioner's credibility. See Qin Wen Zheng v. Gonzales, 500 F.3d at 147 (holding agency may use general adverse credibility finding in support of its refusal to credit the authenticity of document submitted by petitioner). At the same time, however, we recognize the possibility that, in circumstances where an IJ is satisfied as to the authenticity of certain documents without regard to a petitioner's testimony, those documents may then shed favorable light on the credibility of that testimony. In sum, while we have rejected any requirement that corroborative documents strictly comply with the BIA's authentication regulations, we afford IJs considerable flexibility in determining the authenticity of such documents from the totality of the evidence and in using documents found to be authentic in making an overall assessment of the credibility of a petitioner's testimony and, ultimately, of her persecution claim. We express no view as to the reliability of the documentary evidence here at issue or the weight that it might bear if found to be authentic. We hold only that, in light of Cao He Lin, we now conclude that the IJ erred in finding that the lack of § 287.6 authentication required her to reject the evidence and to give it no weight at all in determining Li's credibility.