Court Opinion

ID: 9814612
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 23:58:36.151892+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:42:05.418424
License: Public Domain

JANE B. STRANCH, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the result in this case and all its reasoning save reliance on the BIA’s finding that Kaba was not credible. Kaba’s petition for review is correctly dismissed based on the agency’s determination that she failed to present reasonably available corroborating evidence. Therefore, it is unnecessary to affirm the adverse credibility determination of the IJ’s and BIA and, in my opinion, preferable not to do so. I cannot view Kaba’s testimony that she spent three days in prison as an attempt to enhance her claims of persecution. Had Kaba been disposed to self-serving lies, she would have testified that she was in prison for thirteen months, thus conforming her testimony with the petition and enhancing the possibility of being granted relief. Instead, Kaba testified that her petition statement contained an error. That testimony has all the indicia of truth, just as the petition statement has all the indicia of a scrivener’s error or an error of translation by someone for whom English is a third language. I would not affirm the adverse credibility finding of the BIA as I believe it discourages aliens from testifying truthfully in removal proceedings.