The First Circuit has remanded a CAT claim in which the agency discredited an expert’s opinion without sufficient reason.
The full text of G.P. v. Garland can be found here:
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expert testimony
The Board of Immigration Appeals has determined that when an Immigration Judge finds an expert to be a credible witness, it does not follow that the Immigration Judge must accept all the testimony and opinions provided as facts. “That said, when the Immigration Judge makes a factual finding that is not consistent with an expert’s opinion, it is important, as the Immigration Judge did here, to explain the reasons behind the factual findings.”
The full text of Matter of M-A-M-Z- can be found here:
The Ninth Circuit has reversed the agency’s rejection of expert witness testimony in a Convention Against Torture case. “If the Board rejects expert testimony, it must state ‘in the record why the testimony was insufficient to establish the probability of torture.’ Improperly rejected expert testimony is a legal error and, thus, per se reversible.” The court also rejected the agency’s assertion that the expert witness’ testimony should be accorded less weight because it was not corroborated by other documents in the record. “If an expert’s opinion could only be relied upon if it were redundant with other evidence in the record, there would be no need for experts.”
The full text of Castillo v. Barr can be found here:
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2020/11/18/19-72745.pdf
The Board of Immigration Appeals has determined that “a key purpose of qualifying a witness as an expert is to provide a framework for the Immigration Judge to evaluate the evidence. In assessing whether to admit the testimony of a witness as an expert, an Immigration Judge should consider whether it is sufficiently relevant and reliable for the expert to offer an informed opinion.” “To be reliable, an expert’s testimony must be ‘based on sufficient facts or data’ that the expert ‘has been made aware of or personally observed’ or from sources that ‘experts in the particular field would reasonably rely on.’” “In considering how much weight to give an expert’s testimony, the Immigration Judge should assess how probative and persuasive the testimony is regarding key issues in dispute for which the testimony is being offered. However, to the extent that the record contains contradictory evidence, the Immigration Judge should explain why inferences made by the expert are reasonable and more persuasive than the other evidence presented.”
The full text of Matter of J-G-T- can be found here: