Liu (not precedential): Numerous IJ Errors In Chinese Asylum Case

Liu v. Filip
http://www.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/073294np.pdf
No. 07-3294
Not Precedential
January 30, 2009

Judge Sloviter and Barry with Judge Eugene E. Siler, Jr. (from the Sixth Circuit). Per curiam decision.

Overturning the BIA and IJ Charles Honeyman for improper reasoning in denying the asylum claim of someone from China.

Briefly, numerous errors by the BIA and IJ in denying the asylum claim: one minor inconsistentcy of a date in a cousin's letter was too minor to justify finding the witness not credible; testimony was he escaped by the back door, not the front door; escape not inherently improbable where church members outnumbered police and interfered with their chase and he knew the area so possible he could outrun the police; odd circumstance of getting a notarized birth certificate in hiding does raise questions but does not go to the heart of the claim.

IJ improperly called the wife a star witness whose absence from testifying was suspicious -- actually, she did not there when the police tried to capture her husband.