Jiang v. Gonzales

• Decision Date: 14 May 2007
• Docket Number: No. 06-3142.,06-3142.
• Citation: 485 F.3d 992
• Parties: Chun Rong JIANG, Petitioner, v. Alberto R. GONZALES, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

485 F.3d 992

Chun Rong JIANG, Petitioner, v. Alberto R. GONZALES, Respondent.

No. 06-3142.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued April 17, 2007.

Decided May 14, 2007.

Yongbing Zhang (argued), Wang, Leonard & Condon, Chicago, IL, for Petitioner.

Karen Lundgren, Department of Homeland Security, Office of the Chief Counsel, Chicago, IL, Daniel G. Lonergan (argued), Department of Justice, Civil Division, Immigration Litigation, Washington, DC, for Respondent.

Before KANNE, WOOD, and EVANS, Circuit Judges.

EVANS, Circuit Judge.

Chun Rong Jiang applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention against Torture (CAT) based on religious persecution he claims to have suffered in China both as a Christian and as the founder of an underground church. The immigration judge (IJ) denied relief because he found Jiang's testimony incredible and, alternatively, because he believed that Jiang had suffered only harassment, not persecution. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) adopted and affirmed the IJ's decision, and Jiang now petitions for review.

Jiang entered the United States in the summer of 2002 without inspection through Brownsville, Texas, but shortly after his arrival he was placed in removal proceedings. Within a year of his arrival Jiang applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the CAT.

In his application and testimony before the IJ, Jiang asserted that he started facing persecution once he founded an underground Christian church in October 2001 in Fujian province. As a child Jiang attended a church run by the Chinese government, but when he became an adult he chafed at the government's use of the church to control Christians and decided to hold religious services at his home. This underground church remained small, but even still he received many warnings from government officials to stop the services.

Jiang also stated that during a church service held in February 2002, four uniformed officers broke into his house. When Jiang asked them if they had a warrant, an officer slapped him in the face, proceeded to search his home, and confiscated all his religious materials. The officers then handcuffed everyone attending the service, including Jiang, and took them to the police station.

Once at the station, Jiang asserted that officers ordered him to squat while they interrogated him about his underground church. During this interrogation the officers repeatedly beat him with batons and pushed him to the ground while his hands remained cuffed. The officers then put him into a cell with four other prisoners who repeatedly beat him; he testified that the guards instigated this violence and never intervened to protect him. After seven days, Jiang's relatives gathered enough money to pay a fine and he was released.

Following his release Jiang testified that he immediately went to the hospital, where he stayed for two weeks while doctors treated his injuries. Jiang submitted medical records demonstrating that he had suffered soft tissue injuries, swelling, and bruising on his abdomen and legs.

According to Jiang, upon his discharge from the hospital he was prohibited from attending church, lost his job at a state-owned hotel, and was required to report to the police weekly, all of which motivated him to flee China. Within one day, he procured commitments from family members to pay—once he arrived safely in the United States—the $60,000 fee required to smuggle him out of China on a fraudulent passport.

The IJ denied Jiang's application for relief. The IJ discredited Jiang's testimony based on: (1) his "lack of knowledge" about Christianity; (2) his testimony that he arranged to leave China in one day, an account the IJ found implausible; (3) Jiang's purportedly inconsistent testimony regarding his fraudulent Chinese passport; and (4) the medical records, which the IJ described as "suspect." Alternatively, the IJ concluded that, even assuming that Jiang testified credibly, the harm he faced did not rise to the level of persecution. Since Jiang did not qualify for asylum, the IJ also denied Jiang's applications for withholding of removal and relief under the CAT. The BIA adopted and affirmed the IJ's decision with a one-paragraph order that contained no additional analysis.

Jiang argues on appeal, and we agree, that none of the IJ's four reasons for rejecting his testimony are supported by substantial evidence. Jiang first maintains that the IJ erred by discrediting his testimony that he led an underground church. Specifically, Jiang contends that the IJ erred by concluding that he lacked knowledge about Christianity based not on the record but on the IJ's own beliefs about Christianity and what should be common knowledge for Christians in China.

We will overturn an IJ's adverse credibility determination if it is not supported by "specific, cogent reasons" that "bear a legitimate nexus to the finding." Gjerazi v. Gonzales, 435 F.3d 800, 807 (7th Cir.2006) (citations omitted). Findings that rest on an IJ's own speculation, conjecture, or unsupported personal opinion are improper. Chen v. Gonzales, 420 F.3d 707, 710 (7th Cir.2005); Lin v. Ashcroft, 385 F.3d 748, 755-56 (7th Cir.2004). Likewise, an IJ's "personal beliefs or some perceived common knowledge about the religion . . . [are] not a proper basis for an adverse credibility finding." Huang v. Gonzales, 403 F.3d 945, 949 (7th Cir.2005).

Jiang correctly argues that the IJ impermissibly relied on personal beliefs and his perceived common knowledge when concluding that Jiang "has, at best, rudimentary if any knowledge about Christianity." We have cautioned IJs against using an applicant's "ignorance of the details of religious doctrine . . . as evidence that an individual is not a true believer," Muhur v. Ashcroft, 355 F.3d 958, 961 (7th Cir.2004); see also Huang, 403 F.3d at 949; Iao v. Gonzales, 400 F.3d 530, 534 (7th Cir.2005), but that is precisely what the IJ did here as evidenced by this example:

IJ: Are you aware of the biblical injunction render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. . . .

Jiang: As far as my basic belief, understanding of the Bible is that—

IJ: What I'm asking you is to explain the phrase to me.

Jiang: I cannot explain very thoroughly because my understanding of the Bible is very limited and my understanding of, the basic understanding is the truth and the path. . . .

IJ: Well, the reason I ask you this particular phrase is because . . . the phrase is well-known. . . . I thought, that you would know it.

The IJ assumed that Jiang would be familiar with and understand this particular biblical text. The IJ used Jiang's inability to interpret it as evidence that he was not, as he claimed, a real Christian. This is a bit like concluding that someone is not a baseball devotee because he can't explain the intricacies of the balk rule. The IJ also questioned Jiang about the difference between the Old and New Testaments but rejected his response, even though Jiang identified Adam, Eve, Isaac, and Solomon; described Jesus as "savior"; and described the New Testament as the story of Jesus and his 12 disciples and how they "fight with evil," "cure the diseases," and "spread the gospels."

In the Profile of Asylum Claims, the Department of State informs adjudicators that "because of a lack of access to religious training and literature, some committed Chinese Christians may have difficulty responding to" simple doctrinal questions. Instead of accounting for this limited doctrinal knowledge, the IJ here erroneously discredited Jiang's testimony based on an exaggerated notion of how much people in China actually should know about Christianity.

Jiang next argues that the IJ impermissibly relied on speculation and conjecture when he discounted as implausible his account of arranging to leave China on short notice, without pre-paying any portion of the smuggling fee. Jiang maintains that the manner in which he fled China is irrelevant to the heart of his claim of religious persecution and that, in any event, the IJ rejected this testimony based on his own opinions about how smuggling operations work in China.

As an initial matter, an "IJ's adverse credibility finding must be based on issues that go to the heart of the applicant's claim," see Adekpe v. Gonzales, 480 F.3d 525, 531 (7th Cir.2007) (citations omitted), and the manner in which Jiang was smuggled out of China has nothing to do with his claim of...