Court Opinion

ID: 9498065
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:07:22.060942+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:36.019047
License: Public Domain

GRABER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent.
In 1996, in -a sworn visa application, Petitioner listed his brother-in-law’s current address at a house in Virginia, even though he knew that the man had died six years earlier. Petitioner claimed that he had not read the form that his wife filled out. But it was his form that contained the fraud.
Although our past cases do hold, as the majority notes, page 1117, that an applicant’s lie to gain entry to the United States does not necessarily prejudice the applicant’s later asylum application, I do not read those cases as going so far as to say that an IJ may not consider a past lie or act of fraud to bear on an applicant’s general propensity to tell the truth. To the contrary, our cases have noted that an applicant’s misrepresentations should be assessed in view of all the circumstances of the case. See Turcios v. INS, 821 F.2d 1396, 1400 (9th Cir.1987) (holding that, although untrue statements on an application are not reason alone to refuse refugee status, “it is the examiner’s responsibility to evaluate such statements in the light of all the circumstances of the case”). Here, the past fraud provided a legitimate basis for the IJ to seek corroborating evidence, because the fraud called into question Petitioner’s truthfulness. See Guo v. Ashcroft, 361 F.3d 1194, 1201 (9th Cir.2004) (holding that, when an applicant’s credibility is in question, the IJ’s or BIA’s adverse inference will withstand appellate review if the applicant failed to produce material, non-duplicative, available corroboration); Sidhu v. INS, 220 F.3d 1085, 1090-92 (9th Cir.2000) (same). This is not a case—like Akinmade v. INS, 196 F.3d 951 (9th Cir.1999), and Turcios, for example — in which the applicant lied out of fear of immediate danger or fear of future persecution, motivating the desire to gain entry into the United States. Petitioner says, instead, that he lied out of laziness.
Additionally, Petitioner’s declaration stated that he was threatened in 1988-89, whereas he testified instead that the threats occurred in 1989-96. This huge discrepancy goes to the heart of his asylum claim because, among other things, it *1122affects the reasonableness of his claimed fear of future persecution. Similarly, Petitioner testified that the NPA knew his name and knew him “particularly,” yet stated in his declaration that he simply was worried that the NPA might figure out his identity. This significant discrepancy, too, goes to the heart of the asylum claim.
Although the IJ did not rely on those two discrepancies as reasons to disbelieve Petitioner, and thus we cannot rely on them directly to support denial of the petition, this credibility-undermining information is part of the record that supports the IJ’s insistence on receiving easily available, material, non-duplicative corroborative evidence. In my view, therefore, the IJ properly relied on the absence of such corroborating evidence to disbelieve Petitioner. I would affirm the adverse credibility finding on that ground.
Alternatively, the finding that Petitioner would not be subject to future persecution is supported by substantial evidence. I agree with the majority that the record does not compel a finding of past persecution, p. 1118-19, so no presumption of future persecution operates in Petitioner’s favor. See Molina-Estrada v. INS, 293 F.3d 1089, 1094 (9th Cir.2002) (noting that a failure to establish past persecution does not trigger a presumption of future persecution). As the majority concedes, p. 1120, the State Department Country Report describes improved conditions in the Philippines. See id. at 1096 (concluding that when a petitioner has not established past persecution, the IJ may rely on a State Department report in considering whether the petitioner has demonstrated that there is a good reason to fear future persecution).1 The record demonstrates that Petitioner’s own situation improved, too. Petitioner admitted in his testimony (assuming that it was credible) that the threats against him had decreased over time, from around ten times per month in the period 1989 to 1991, tapering to three times during all of 1996 — which individually corroborates the country reports in Petitioner’s own case. Moreover, Petitioner’s wife, child, parents, brother, and sister live in the Philippines without problems. See Lim v. INS, 224 F.3d 929, 935 (9th Cir.2000) (holding that ongoing family safety can be used to “mitigate a well-founded fear, particularly where the family is similarly situated to the applicant and thus presumably subject to similar risk”).
For these reasons, under our deferential standard of review, the petition must be denied. I respectfully dissent from the majority’s contrary conclusion.

. The IJ relied on the State Department report to find "that there has been a substantial change in the country conditions." She also relied on Petitioner’s individual situation when she observed that the NPA had never followed up on any of the previous threats (assuming them to be credible).