Qian Bao Cai v. Ashcroft

MEMORANDUM **

Qian Bao Cai, a native and citizen of China, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ summary affirmance of an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of his application for asylum and withholding of removal. We have jurisdiction pursuant *537 to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We grant the petition for review and remand for further proceedings.

The IJ made an adverse credibility finding against Cai, which we review for substantial evidence. Lata v. INS, 204 F.3d 1241, 1245 (9th Cir.2000). While “we accord substantial deference to an IJ’s credibility finding[,] ... [w]hen the IJ provides specific reasons for the questioning of a witness’s credibility, this court may evaluate those reasons to determine whether they are valid grounds upon which to base a finding that the applicant is not credible.” Mendoza Manimbao v. Ashcroft, 329 F.3d 655, 658 (9th Cir.2003) (quotation marks and citation omitted).

The IJ referred to conflicting evidence concerning the birthplace of Cai’s second son, as well as to differing accounts of Cai’s whereabouts when his wife’s forced abortion allegedly occurred. These inconsistencies do not go to the heart of Cai’s asylum claim — that his…