Professor Evangeline Abriel and her co-authors have published Credibility Determinations in Removal Proceedings in 2020 AILA Virtual Immigration Court Conference: A Practical Skills Training (Rizwan Hassan, ed., American Immigration Lawyers Association 2020). An immigration judge’s adverse credibility finding can be devastating for the case of an applicant for asylum or other forms of relief from removal. In this article, Professor Abriel and her co-authors discuss the standards for credibility determinations under the Immigration and Nationality Act as interpreted by the courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals and offer suggested best practices for avoiding adverse credibility findings. The authors discuss at length common bases for adverse credibility findings, how practitioners might best deal with inconsistencies between testimony and prior statements made during border or airport arrival interviews, and the influence of race, gender, culture, and religion on credibility determinations especially when the applicant has suffered persecution which may influence their willingness to share facts during their initial border interview. Finally, Professor Abriel and her colleagues discuss ways to salvage an applicant’s petition for withholding of removal even in the face of an adverse credibility determination.
