Jose Jandres-Turcios v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

1. Although Jandres testified that he did nothing to persecute anyone, the immigration judge (IJ) found Jandres’s testimony about his activities as a Treasury policeman to be “incredible and inconsistent.” Credibility determinations are “conclusive unless any reasonable adjudicator would be compelled to conclude to the contrary.” 8 U.S.C. § 1252 (b)(4)(B); Shrestha v. Holder, 590 F.3d 1034, 1044 (9th Cir.2010). Jandres first testified that he never detained anyone, but then said he had. In addition, he claimed that he didn’t remember telling an immigration officer that he had (1) killed guerillas, (2) interrogated civilians suspected of aiding guerillas, (3) personally interrogated three indigenous persons for subversion, and (4) delivered suspected guerillas to the S-2.

Given these inconsistencies, the IJ was justified in discounting Jandres’s testimony. In addition, Jandres admitted to being a member of the Treasury Police in El Salvador, known for its human rights abuses, and to turning people over to the S-2 intelligence unit, where he knew they may have been harmed. Collectively, this was “sufficient” to shift the burden to Jandres to prove he wasn’t a…