Grupee v. Gonzales, 04-1618.

• Decision Date: 16 March 2005
• Docket Number: No. 04-1618.,04-1618.
• Citation: 400 F.3d 1026
• Parties: James G. GRUPEE, Petitioner, v. Alberto R. GONZALES, Attorney General of the United States, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

400 F.3d 1026

James G. GRUPEE, Petitioner, v. Alberto R. GONZALES, Attorney General of the United States, Respondent.

No. 04-1618.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued March 2, 2005.

Decided March 16, 2005.

Albert M. Bower (argued), Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon, Chicago, IL, for Petitioner.

Karen Lundgren, Department of Homeland Security, Office of the District Counsel, Chicago, IL, Norah Ascoli Schwarz, John S. Hogan (argued), Department of Justice, Civil Division, Immigration Litigation, Washington, DC, for Respondents.

Before BAUER, EASTERBROOK, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge.

Until he fled in 2000, James Grupee was the chief of staff to the vice president of Liberia. He sought asylum immediately on arriving in this nation, contending that he had been arrested and tortured in retaliation for using his position to provide clandestine support to human-rights endeavors. That Grupee is who he claims to be, and that he provided assistance to Liberians United for Democracy in Africa (LUDA), no one doubts. Stories in Monrovia's media corroborated the tale of his disappearance into the prison system on claims by the vice president's security chief that by helping LUDA he was plotting the government's downfall. (Formal charges were not preferred.) The State Department's dim view of the human-rights record of the regime that ruled Liberia until August 2003 makes his claim of mistreatment in prison plausible. Yet the immigration judge thought his account of events false, and the Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed in a one-paragraph opinion.

According to the IJ, four aspects of Grupee's tale make it too tall to be true: (1) Grupee testified that he reported to work for two days between his release from prison and his departure for the Ivory Coast; the IJ thought it unlikely that a person suspected of treason would have done so. (2) Grupee obtained a passport immediately after his release; the IJ thought it unlikely that Liberia would have furnished a travel document to an enemy of the state. (3) Grupee testified that his work for LUDA led to his arrest; the IJ found it suspicious that he had not made such a claim earlier and had not produced any of the reports he wrote for LUDA's use. (4) The IJ thought it telling that only one piece of evidence (an affidavit from Grupee's brother) came from anyone who had personal knowledge of the arrest. None of the IJ's concerns amounts to substantial evidence in support of a conclusion that Grupee is not credible, and they are no stronger collectively than they are individually.

Grupee told the IJ exactly why he had returned to the vice president's office: so that he would be left alone for long enough to arrange his departure. He feared that any other step would lead the authorities to treat flight as a confession of guilt and arrest him again. He wanted to present the picture of a person secure in his own innocence. Vice President Dogolea and Grupee had been friends since childhood, so perhaps Dogolea would offer some protection unless Grupee's activities called his own position into question. (Dogolea was indeed at risk; he was murdered after Grupee fled, and it is widely believed that President Charles Taylor gave the order for his assassination.) The IJ did not discuss Grupee's explanation for his actions, and unexplained incredulity is not a good ground for disbelief.

That Grupee obtained a passport is unsurprising. Many dictatorial regimes want their internal opponents...