Court Opinion

ID: 9492826
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:51:28.726095+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:30.819325
License: Public Domain

HAWKINS, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I write separately to concur because the majority takes our precedent in Campos-Sanchez one unnecessary step backwards.
The majority states that once an IJ finds a petitioner not credible, “the responsibility [is on the petitioner] to explain all the inconsistencies in her testimony, not just the few examples pointed to by the IJ to provide a basis for his conclusion.” Majority Opinion at 939.
Campos-Sanchez holds that to satisfy due process a petitioner must be given “an opportunity to explain any alleged inconsistencies that [the BIA] raises for the first time.” 164 F.3d 448, 450 (9th Cir. 1999). The Campos-Sanchez court made this statement where the IJ found the petitioner credible and the BIA reversed that credibility finding. Due process, however, applies equally to a case where the IJ finds the petitioner not credible for one reason and the BIA finds the petitioner not credible for an entirely unrelated reason: in both scenarios, the petitioner has no notice of the basis for the finding and no opportunity to confront or explain it. The majority would deny petitioners their due process rights to a full and fair deportation hearing where the IJ and the BIA both find the petitioner not credible but base their findings on completely different reasons.
No question of a denial of due process, however, is even presented in this case. Here, Mrs. Pal was given adequate opportunity to confront and explain the grounds listed by the IJ for the finding that she was not credible. The BIA’s reaffirmance *941of these grounds was sufficient to uphold the credibility determination. Nothing more was or is necessary in this case.