Court Opinion

ID: 9493491
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:09:51.446756+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:52.475202
License: Public Domain

WALLACE, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
The majority concludes that we must accept as credible Shoafera’s testimony concerning Belay’s motivation for raping her, and that Shoafera’s testimony, together with her sister Hiuwof s similar testimony, is substantial evidence that compels reversal. I disagree with both conclusions and, therefore, I dissent.
We review a determination of ineligibility for asylum for substantial evidence. Marcu v. INS, 147 F.3d 1078, 1080 (9th *1077Cir.1998). This standard is “extremely narrow” and “highly deferential” to the immigration judge (IJ) and Board of Immigration Appeals (Board). Id. As the majority concedes, we will affirm the Board if its decision is “supported by reasonable, substantial and probative evidence in the record.” Ante at 1073. Before we grant a petition for review and reverse the Board, however, we must be convinced that the petitioner’s evidence not only supports, but compels reversal. INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 481 & n. 1, 112 S.Ct. 812, 117 L.Ed.2d 38 (1992). In words Judge Pregerson has several times written for the court to explain the substantial evidence standard, “conjecture is not a substitute for substantial evidence.” Abovian v. INS, 219 F.3d 972, 979 (9th Cir.2000) (citation omitted); Chanchavac v. INS, 207 F.3d 584, 590 n. 4, 592 (9th Cir.2000) (citation omitted); Lopez-Reyes v. INS, 79 F.3d 908, 912 (9th Cir.1996) (citation omitted).
To succeed in her asylum application, Shoafera has the burden to prove, among other things, that she has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of a protected group: race, religion, nationality, social group, or political opinion. Fisher v. INS, 79 F.3d 955, 960 (9th Cir.1996) (en banc).
Even assuming the majority is correct on what testimony the IJ and the Board found to be credible, an issue I will address later, I disagree with the majority’s holding that Shoafera’s and Hiuwofs unsupported testimony is substantial evidence that compels us to reverse the Board’s decision. Presenting credible evidence that one is entitled to asylum does not mean one has put forward substantial evidence that one is entitled to asylum. See Diaz-Escobar v. INS, 782 F.2d 1488, 1492 (9th Cir.1986). In addition, to overturn the Board before our court, an alien must establish that her evidence is not only substantial but compelling. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. at 481 n. 1, 112 S.Ct. 812. Again, personal speculation and conjecture is not sufficient to satisfy the substantial evidence standard. Abovian, 219 F.3d at 978-79.
During Shoafera’s asylum hearing, she was asked why Belay might have raped her. Her immediate response was: “I just — He probably was attracted to me. I don’t know.” Only after her attorney coaxed her further with an open-ended question did she opine that she was raped “ ‘Cause I’m an Amhara. If I was a Tigre-an he wouldn’t do it.” She also stated that Belay might have taken advantage of her because she was vulnerable inasmuch as there were no men in her family, like a father or a brother, who lived close enough to protect her. Hiuwof, Shoafera’s sister, who was not present during the rape, also testified that Belay raped Shoafera because “she’s Amhara and he doesn’t like her.” Neither Shoafera nor Hiuwof provided any support for their assertion of Belay’s ethnic animus — neither claim that he said anything to Shoafera about her being an Amhara, or that he was notorious for targeting Amharas, or that he committed other crimes or offenses against Amharas. Cf. Kozulin v. INS, 218 F.3d 1112, 1116 (9th Cir.2000) (upholding Board’s finding that physical assault was not politically motivated, in part, because “no evidence suggests that the attackers in any way expressed their motivation”).
Even if we were to accept Shoafera’s statement that she was raped because, among other reasons, she was an ethnic Amhara, it does not necessarily follow that this is substantial, much less compelling, evidence. The result of the majority’s holding would be that any alien who has been raped by someone of a different ethnicity could testify in a deportation proceeding that she was raped because of her ethnicity and, without stating more, successfully rest her case. Such a result stretches beyond logic the requirement that an asylum applicant prove “by credible, direct, and specific evidence,” that she has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of her membership in a protected group. Fisher, 79 F.3d at 960.
Of course, Shoafera may rely upon her own testimony. Ante at 1075. However, *1078her testimony must be more than mere speculation for us to accept it as compelling evidence. Abovian, 219 F.3d at 978-79. In cases involving rape or the threat of rape in which we have granted an alien’s petition for review and reversed the Board, the alien presented more than just her opinion as to motive. For instance, in Lazo-Majano v. INS, 813 F.2d 1432 (9th Cir.1987), overruled on other grounds by Fisher, 79 F.3d at 963, the asylum applicant testified that her rapist (her employer) had told both her and others at various times that he imputed to her a different political opinion (“subversive”) than his own. Id. at 1433, 1435. Likewise, in Lopez-Galarza v. INS, 99 F.3d 954 (9th Cir.1996), it was clear that the asylum applicant, who was thought to support the Nicaraguan Contras, had been raped, imprisoned, and beaten by the Sandinista military because of her political opinion: among other things, her persecutors told her so verbally and painted “Death to the contras” on her family’s home. Id. at 957. The asylum applicant in Surita v. INS, 95 F.3d 814 (9th Cir.1996), a citizen of Fiji of Indian descent and Hindu religion, was told directly by her ethnic Fijian persecutors to return to India and to leave Fiji for ethnic Fijians; additionally, ethnic Fijians desecrated the Hindu temple where she worshiped. Id. at 818.
In these cases, the asylum applicants rested on more than mere personal speculation as to the cause of their persecution. They supported their assertions with at least some direct evidence that their persecutors antagonized them because they were a member of a protected class. Such support is utterly lacking in Shoafera’s case. She had the burden to prove a nexus between her persecution and her membership in a protected class. Fisher, 79 F.3d at 960. She did not do so. The majority cannot properly blame the IJ or the Immigration and Naturalization Service for this deficit: the burden of proof does not magically move away from Shoafera. To use the majority’s language, Shoafera “had the opportunity ... to establish [that] her testimony that Belay raped her because she is an Amhara was [more than] mere ‘speculation.’ ” Ante at 1075. But her attorney did not question Shoafera further on this issue. This demonstrates Shoafera failed to meet her burden of proof.
The majority makes no attempt to explain why speculation, even if credible, suffices for substantial evidence in this case. Not only does this show we should not grant the petition, but the issue becomes conclusive when we look more carefully at the credibility issue. Therefore, I now turn to a discussion of the majority’s holding that we must assume Shoafera’s testimony to be credible.
We presume that an alien testified credibly when the IJ does not make an adverse credibility finding. Ante at 1074-75. However, it is well established that “deference must be given ‘to the immigration judge’s express and implied determination concerning credibility where the record supports this finding.’ ” Diaz-Escobar, 782 F.2d at 1492, quoting Saballo-Cortez v. INS, 761 F.2d 1259, 1266 (9th Cir.1984). The majority asserts that this circuit “does not permit implicit adverse credibility determinations.” Ante at 1074 n. 3. The majority’s citations in support of this proposition do not specifically reject the notion of implied adverse credibility determinations at all but merely state that credibility determinations “must have a legitimate ar-ticulable basis to question the petitioner’s credibility, and must offer a specific, cogent reason for any stated disbelief.” Garrovillas v. INS, 156 F.3d 1010, 1013 (9th Cir.1998) (quotations omitted). As will be seen later, the IJ did have a basis for an implied adverse credibility finding and did give a reason for the finding. Our statement in Diaz-Escobar quoted above (“implied determination”) — itself a quotation from Saballo-Cortez — demonstrates the majority’s error. Unfortunately, in its enthusiasm to reverse the Board, the majority establishes an unnecessary conflict in our case law. In Shoafera’s case, the IJ *1079made a partial adverse credibility determination, which the majority simply ignores.
The IJ commented on Shoafera’s credibility in his oral decision. Regarding her testimony that she was actually raped and that she thought it might be because she was attractive, the IJ stated:
The Court certainly finds that the respondent’s claim and testimony is credible in regard to the incidents which occurred to her....
The respondent’s testimony is clear to the Court that this individual, i.e., her sexual attacker, was one who was attracted to her as a young attractive female without someone to protect or defend her and took advantage of her through his authority and government position [and] use of a weapon....
However, fatal to Shoafera’s asylum application, the IJ also found her testimony concerning the ethnic motivations behind the rape to be without credibility:
The respondent’s claim separately, however, is that because she is an Amharic; an ethnic minority, and at least associated or at least participated at one time with the [All Amhara People’s Organization], that she would be facing what she believes is political persecution, again from this individual. The respondent’s speculations, however, and they are the Court believes speculations and conclusions, do not prove her claim. The evidence she presents and the facts she presents are one of personal vendetta and revenge. One of sexual advances and abuses by a man who believed that he had the authority and the impunity to carry out his own sexual depravities.
They were unrelated, the Court' believes, to any ethnic, let alone political activities of the individuals....
I read this passage from the IJ’s decision to be a finding that Shoafera’s testimony concerning Belay’s ethnic motivations was not credible. The Board made the same finding. As is evident from the full quotation of the IJ’s statement, the basis for his finding was the ample evidence Shoafera presented concerning Belay’s power and desire for personal revenge.
We should invoke the presumption in favor of credibility only when there is no adverse credibility finding. But here, there was an adverse credibility finding by both the IJ and the Board. The majority simply ignores the fact that the IJ and the Board made a partial adverse credibility finding and rejected Shoafera’s testimony regarding the ethnic motivations of her attacker.
Even a cursory review of the record shows ample support for the Board’s finding that Shoafera was targeted for personal and not ethnic reasons. In testimony the IJ regarded as credible, Shoafera stated that she was raped because she was attractive. She and Hiuwof testified that rape typically goes unreported in Ethiopia for social reasons. Because of this fact, Belay apparently assumed he would not be brought to justice. When-Shoafera insisted that her brother report the rape, Belay was imprisoned for one month. Hiuwof opined that upon his release, Belay was “mad” because he had been reported and imprisoned, and that he sought revenge against Shoafera. These facts paint a picture of a man of power who raped Shoafera because she was vulnerable and attractive, not because she was an Amhara; a man who sought revenge when she had his crime reported to the authorities. The fact that Shoafera’s brother, jailed for participation in a pro-Amhara demonstration in 1994, is still in jail, purportedly because of Belay’s influence, while many of the other Amhara demonstrators have been released further supports a conclusion that Belay seeks revenge against Shoafera because she reported the rape, not because she is an Amhara.
Rape is not a ground for asylum. It becomes relevant only in those cases in which it was done on account of membership in a protected group. Lopez-Galarza, 99 F.3d at 959. I do not feel compelled to reverse the Board’s view that Shoafera *1080failed to prove that her rape was ethnically motivated. I would deny the petition.