Abdulkadir

MEMORANDUM ***

Hassan Nor Abdulkadir, a native and citizen of Somalia, petitions for review from an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirming an immigration judge’s (“IJ”) denial of his applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”), and finding that Abdulkadir filed a frivolous asylum application. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We review adverse credibility determinations for substantial evidence. Kaur v. Ashcroft, 379 F.3d 876, 884-85 (9th Cir.2004). We grant the petition for review.

Substantial evidence does not support the conclusion that Abdulkadir did not credibly testify about being a member of the Madiban caste. The IJ’s conclusion that a Madiban member would not refer to himself as “Midgan” is based on impermissable conjecture, see Singh v. INS, 292 F.3d 1017, 1024 (9th Cir.2002), and ignores both Abdulkadir’s admission “Midgan” is an insulting term in Somalia, see Garrovillas v. INS, 156 F.3d 1010, 1013-14 (9th Cir.1998) and the 2000 State Department Report identifying Madiban as a sub-clan of the Midgan caste.

Moreover, the record does not support the IJ’s findings that…