United States Second Circuit

Denial of application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture is vacated in part where the agency cannot base an adverse credibility determination solely on a speculative finding that the applicant has submitted inauthentic documents in support of his application if an applicant's testimony is otherwise credible, consistent and compelling. Where an applicant for withholding of removal establishes past persecution, but the agency finds a fundamental change in country conditions, the agency must provide a reasoned basis, tethered in the record, for its changed country conditions determination unless undisputed historical facts support the conclusion that the applicant will not face persecution on removal.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/19/2007
• Published 12/19/2007

Judges

• CALABRESI, Circuit Judge:, Before:  LEVAL, CALABRESI, and GIBSON, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Morry Cheng, New York, N.Y., for Petitioner.


• For Appellees:
  
• Pravin Rao & Craig Oswald, Assistant United States Attorneys for Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Chicago, Ill., for Respondent.