Cinapian

Concluding Petitioners’ right to a fair hearing was violated and their asylum applications prejudiced by the government’s failure to make the author of an adverse forensic evaluation of Petitioners’ documents available for cross-examination or to disclose the existence of the report to Petitioners until the day of their hearing and by the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) insistence on proceeding in the face of those failures, we grant the petition for review.

Factual and Procedural Background

Petitioners are Aghavni Cinapian (“Aghavni”), her husband Norek Cinapian (“Norek”), and their two sons, Akop and Gevork Cinapian (collectively “Petitioners”). They seek review of the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirming the denial of asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”).

Petitioners testified they are natives and citizens of Iran, ethnic Armenians, and Christians who suffered religious persecution in Iran because they discussed the tenets of the Christian faith with a thirteen-year old Muslim boy, Ali. Ali saw a picture of Jesus Christ in a Bible in Peti tioners’ home and asked them questions about Christianity,…