Lopez-Cabrera
Lopez-Cabrera v. Immigration & Naturalization Service
Opinion
Lead Opinion
ORDER
The Memorandum Disposition filed on November 14, 2002, is WITHDRAWN and a new Memorandum Disposition is concurrently filed in its stead.
With the filing of the new Memorandum Disposition, Respondent’s petition for rehearing is DENIED.
MEMORANDUM *
Lopez-Cabrera appeals the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) denial of her application for asylum. We conclude that Lopez-Cabrera was denied her due process right to respond to the BIA’s inde *861 pendent credibility findings and therefore grant the petition. Because the parties are familiar with the record, we recount facts only as necessary to explain our decision.
The Immigration Judge (IJ), Roy J. Daniel, made an adverse credibility finding that was, as the BIA recognized, based only “on speculative assumptions not supported by the record.” Aside from speculation, the IJ’s adverse credibility finding consisted of unsupported invective quite beyond the bounds of appropriate professional discourse. Although it correctly recognized that the IJ’s credibility determination was not entitled to deference, the BIA chose to make its own credibility finding.