Wang

MEMORANDUM *

Kai He Wang, a native of the Peoples Republic of China, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ affirmance of an immigration judge’s denial of his applications for asylum and withholding of removal. We grant the petition.

The IJ did not cite “specific, cogent reason,” to justify her adverse credibility determination, see de Leon-Barrios v. INS, 116 F.3d 391 , 393 (9th Cir.1997), nor were those reasons supported by substantial evidence. Gui v. INS, 280 F.3d 1217, 1225 (9th Cir.2002). The IJ’s primary reason for finding Wang not credible was his failure to specify in his airport interview that his wife had been forcibly sterilized. However, we hesitate to assign much impeachment value to omissions from airport interview statements; many arriving aliens are reluctant to reveal episodes of persecution and, as in this case, there often is little known about the circumstances of the interviews to ensure their accuracy. Singh v. INS, 292 F.3d 1017, 1021, 1023 (9th Cir.2002); see also Balasubramanrim v. INS, 143 F.3d 157, 162 (3d Cir.1998). More important, Wang’s testimony did not vary significantly from his interview statement. In the interview, Wang…