Assefa

MEMORANDUM **

In case no. 03-71905, Abiy Assefa, a native and citizen of Ethiopia, petitions for review of the BIA’s final order of removal affirming without opinion the IJ’s denial of Assefa’s application for asylum and withholding of removal and for protection under the Convention Against Torture.

We grant the petition for review and remand because the IJ’s adverse credibility finding is not supported by substantial evidence. See Lopez-Reyes v. INS, 79 F.3d 908, 911 (9th Cir.1996). The IJ gave three reasons for her credibility finding. First, the IJ found that although Assefa claimed persecution on account of his half-Eritrean ethnicity, he testified that people unfamiliar with him would not know that he was half-Eritrean just by looking at him. This finding does nothing to impugn Assefa’s credibility, as it ignores the other means of ascertaining an individual’s ethnicity available to the government, including government records, birth records, and identity cards.

The IJ’s second reason for questioning Assefa’s credibility is grounded upon the IJ’s patent misunderstanding of Assefa’s testimony regarding the passport he used to enter the United States. The record reflects…