United States Seventh Circuit

Petition for review of Board of Immigration Appeals' denial of asylum application and withholding of removal is granted and the decision vacated and remanded where: 1) the IJ's adverse credibility determination was unsupported by evidence in the record, as the IJ's stated reasons for disbelieving plaintiff's claims were either speculative or irrelevant, and material favorable evidence was left unaddressed; 2) the IJ's analysis for concluding that plaintiff did not reasonably fear future persecution was not adequately grounded in the record; and 3) the IJ's behavior at trial toward plaintiff and his expert witness show an apparent bias on the part of the IJ, and thus plaintiff was denied a meaningful opportunity to be heard before a neutral IJ as required by statute and regulation.

Appellate Information

• Argued 06/05/2008
• Decided 05/08/2009
• Published 05/08/2009

Judges

• SYKES, Circuit Judge., Before POSNER, KANNE, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Dean V. Hoffman (argued), Katten Muchin Rosenman, Chicago, IL, for Petitioner.


• For Appellees:
  
• James A. Hunolt (argued), Emily A. Radford, Department of Justice, Civil Div., Immigration Litigation, Washington, DC, for Respondent.