Ninth Circuit refutes immigration judge statements made in Ethiopia asylum case

Steve Czajkowski at 10:17 AM ET [JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] Friday made an unusual ruling [opinion text, PDF], finding that the adverse credibility determination made by an Immigration Judge (IJ) in an asylum case was not based on substantial evidence. The petitioner, Etagegn Haile Tekle, appealed the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) [DOJ backgrounder] decision which had affirmed the IJ's denial of her case for asylum, and the Ninth Circuit granted her petition for review. Etagegn is a citizen of Ethiopia [JURIST news archive] who applied for asylum to the US in 2004 because of a fear of arrest and torture due to her membership in the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) [advocacy website], a political organization seeking independence for the Oromo ethnic group. The IJ had also found... [read full story]