Xiu Zhen Sun v. Gonzales

*800 MEMORANDUM ***

Xiu Zhen Sun, a native and citizen of the People’s Republic of China, petitions for review of a final order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) affirming an Immigration Judge’s (IJ) denial of asylum and withholding of removal based on claims of religious and political persecution. We deny the petition in part, grant the petition in part, and remand for further proceedings.

DISCUSSION

1. Religious Persecution

The IJ determined that Sun’s claim that she was persecuted for being a Jehovah Witness was not credible. That determination “may be reversed only if the evidence presented was so compelling that no reasonable factfinder could find that the petitioner was not credible.” Shire v. Ashcroft, 388 F.3d 1288, 1295 (9th Cir.2004). Although this standard is deferential, the IJ’s “adverse credibility finding must be supported by specific, cogent reasons, and cannot be based on speculation and conjecture.” Id.

Some of the IJ’s reasons in support of his adverse credibility determination are based on speculation and conjecture and impermissibly “rest on incidental misstatements that do not go to the heart of [Sun’s] asylum claim.” See Chen v. Ashcroft, 362…