Patatanyan v. Gonzales
Patatanyan v. Gonzales
Opinion of the Court
MEMORANDUM
Petitioners Rafik Patatanyan (“Rafik”),
I.
We have jurisdiction to review the BIA’s final order of removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(1). Where, as here, the BIA adopts and affirms the IJ’s decision pursuant to Matter of Burbano, 20 I & N Dec. 872, 874 (B.I.A. 1994), and “does not express any disagreement with any part of the immigration judge’s decision ... the BIA adopts his decision in its entirety.” Tchoukhrova v. Gonzales, 404 F.3d 1181, 1188 (9th Cir. 2005). We therefore “treat the immigration judge’s reasons as the BIA’s.” Id.
II.
In his opinion, the IJ acknowledged that Rafik’s brother’s testimony was consistent with the major parts of Rafik’s story as to their 1995 arrest and detention, i.e., that “there was an arrest and they were driven in a police car to the station and they were detained for one day and night, beaten and when they would not sign a paper were released and warned not to practice their religion.” The IJ premised his adverse credibility finding, however, on eight “minor inconsistencies[ ] and trivial errors” between the accounts of the two brothers, none of which is sufficient to justify the adverse credibility determination. Osorio v. INS, 99 F.3d 928, 932 (9th Cir. 1996) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Kaur v. Gonzales, 418 F.3d 1061, 1065 (9th Cir. 2005) (stating that “minor” or “trivial” discrepancies cannot support an adverse credibility finding). All but one of the discrepancies identified by the IJ involved minor details regarding the incident.
The minor discrepancies between Rafik’s and his brother’s testimony cited by
III.
We remand to the BIA for a determination whether, accepting his testimony as credible, Rafik is eligible for asylum, withholding, and CAT relief. See INS v. Ventura, 537 U.S. 12, 16, 123 S.Ct. 353, 154 L.Ed.2d 272 (2002) (per curiam); see also Singh v. Ashcroft, 362 F.3d 1164, 1172 (9th
Cir. 2004) (remanding for determination on asylum eligibility where BIA had addressed only adverse credibility issue).
for further proceedings in accordance with this disposition.
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and may not be cited to or by the courts of this circuit except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
. Rafik was the lead alien in the removal proceedings as the other Patatanyan family members’ eligibility for relief was based upon his application.
. The eighth discrepancy concerned whether the brothers had been baptized as young children.
. Although we do not base our grant of the petition on this ground, we note that the record strongly suggests that at least some of the discrepancies between the brothers’ testimony were the result of translation problems. Incoherent testimony that is "possibly the result of mistranslation or miscommunication [is] not a sufficient basis for an adverse credibility finding.” Abovian v. INS, 219 F.3d 972, 979 (9th Cir. 2000) (internal quotation marks omitted), amended, by 228 F.3d 1127 (9th Cir. 2000); see also He v. Ashcroft, 328 F.3d 593, 598 (9th Cir. 2003) (noting that "faulty or unreliable translations can undermine the evidence on which an adverse credibility determination is based”).
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.