Not-precedential Revival of Asylum-seeker's Claim and Criticizing IJ's Baseless Speculation

A.J. v. Gonzales
No. 04-2920
Not Precedential
December 27, 2005

(The asylum-seeker's surname is printed in the case opinion.)

In this not-precedential opinion, the Third Circuit overturned the BIA's denial of an asylum claim.

The Third Circuit based its decision on several mistakes that the IJ and BIA made. First, they wrongly thought that failing to authenticate documents according to a stringent guidelines would automatically render them inadmissible. The Third Circuit has ruled that nothing should be automatically rejected because the guidelines are just a factor to consider, not an absolute rule.

Also, the IJ and BIA ruled that the passage of ten years in China without further punishment for violating the one-child rule meant that the country conditions had changed so he had nothing to fear from returning to China. The Third Circuit overturned this holding because of the clear language in the BIA's decision In re Y-T-L, 23 I. & N. Dec. 601 (BIA 2003).

The Third Circuit also criticized the IJ's baseless speculation that the wife's forced sterilization might have simply been a voluntary sterilization by a woman who felt she had enough kids. As worded by the Third Circuit, the IJ's decision was completely without any justification and is simply bizarre in a manner to rule against an immigrant seeking asylum.