Court Opinion

ID: 9438723
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 05:58:42.256307+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:25:52.309438
License: Public Domain

BYBEE, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
Because the IJ’s adverse credibility determination was supported by substantial evidence, I respectfully dissent.
Hayrapetyan testified he was persecuted by the Armenian government — and by forces associated with it — after reporting official corruption he witnessed while working for the Customs Department. Specifically, Hayrapetyan testified that, among other things, his house was set on fire by the Yerkrapah — a military organization — and that his seven-year-old son died in the fire. To prove his son’s death, Hayrapetyan submitted a death certificate that Respondent proved to be counterfeit. This counterfeit death certificate creates an inconsistency in Hayrapetyan’s testimony that goes to the heart of his asylum claim: if Hayrapetyan’s son is not dead, then the Yerkrapah may not have set Hayrapetyan’s house on fire as Hayrapetyan claimed. In other words, the counterfeit death certificate calls into question whether Hayrapetyan was persecuted at all.
I am not unsympathetic to Petitioner’s claim. If Hayrapetyan’s testimony is true, then he suffered horrific persecution at the hands of the Armenian government and the Yerkrapah. However, when considering the counterfeit death certificate submitted by Hayrapetyan to prove his son’s death along with the other inconsistencies in Hayrapetyan’s testimony, I cannot conclude Petitioner presented evidence “so compelling that no reasonable factfinder could find ... he was not credible.” Famh v. Ashcroft, 348 F.3d 1153, 1156 (9th Cir.2003) (internal quotation omitted). I would deny the petition.