Yeghiazaryan

Background

Yeghiazaryan, a citizen of Armenia, was born in Siberia to parents exiled by the government of the former Soviet Union. On November 11, 1995 Yeghiazaryan entered the United States with a Soviet passport and a B-2 visa. One and one-half months later, on December 29, 1995, Yeghiazaryan filed an application for asylum (I-589) with the Immigration and Nat- uralization Service (“INS”). Yeghiazaryan could not speak or understand English, so he enlisted the help of a lay person, Ashot Serenikimyan (“Serenikimyan”), to complete his I-589 application. Because Serenikimyan never translated the I-589 application for him, Yeghiazaryan was unaware of the facts that he needed to include in the I-589 and hence failed to communicate those facts to Serenikimyan for inclusion. YEGHIAZARYAN v. GONZALES 16367 At Yeghiazaryan’s asylum interview, the asylum officer found his testimony to be “consistent, detailed, and plausible in light of country conditions . . . [and] therefore . . . credi- ble.” According to the officer, although Yeghiazaryan pre- sented evidence indicating that his “fundamental human rights to security of person, liberty, and freedom from arbitrary arrest…