A year and a half ago I wrote about a January 26, 2012, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Oshodi v. Holder (Oshodi I). The case presented an intra-circuit split on the issue of when an alien must provide corroborating evidence in an asylum hearing. An earlier Ninth Circuit case, Ren v. Holder, held: Therefore, the IJ must undertake the following sequential analysis. To begin, the IJ must determine whether an applicant’s credible testimony alone meets the applicant’s burden…

On January 29, 2012, I wrote about a Ninth Circuit decision, Oshodi v. Holder, decided by a three-judge panel consisting of Judges Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, Johnnie B. Rawlinson, and  Robert E. Cowen (a senior circuit judge in the Third Circuit), and written by Judge Rawlinson. In the January 29, 2012, posting, I discussed and gave some analysis of the case. My concern was the change in the law the case made regarding providing corroborating evidence in asylum cases. On May 3, 2012, the Court…

On January 26, 2012, the Ninth Circuit filed a decision, Oshodi v. Holder, which seems to have reversed another Ninth Circuit case, Ren v. Holder, filed on August 19, 2011.    The issue in the case was corroboration of testimony in an asylum, withholding, and Convention Against Torture case. These are cases where people ask to stay in the United States because they are afraid to go home – either because they fear persecution on account of their race, religion, political…

On February 14, 2009, I posted a column on Aden v. Holder in which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the appeal of the denial of an asylum case for a Somali, Hassan Aden, because of his failure to present evidence requested by the immigration judge. The judge requested corroboration regarding the existence of the clan Mr. Aden asserted he belonged to and Mr. Aden’s membership in it. Mr. Aden presented some evidence, letters from three people from Minneapolis, Minnesota, the…