In a truly interesting decision, the 9th Circuit has reversed an immigration judge's who earlier denied the asylum request of Lei Li, a citizen of China. Li claims to be a Christian who was being persecuted for his faith, so the judge asked him "basic questions" about Christianity to gauge the credibility of those claims, questions, finding fault with two answers: the difference between the Old and New Testament, and whether Thanksgiving is a religious holiday.
Pointing out that in fact "President Washington first declared Thanksgiving as a day of public prayer to acknowledge Almighty God," The 9th Circuit rejected (pdf) the immigration judge's [IJ] findings and her method.
The specific evidence in the IJ’s opinion that Li is not a Christian includes only the answers to the two questions, discussed above. The Old/New Testament answer is scant evidence for such a finding. The Thanksgiving answer is no evidence at all. But more importantly, an IJ’s perception of a petitioner’s ignorance of religious doctrine is not a proper basis for an adverse credibility finding.
[Trivia Bleg: Wasn't there an episode of the West Wing that centered on a group's request for religious asylum, and President Bartlet's efforts to determine whether there claims to Christianity were sincere? What was the name of that episode? Anybody? [e-mail: don.byrd – at comcast.net ; twitter: @don_byrd ]]
