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The Raw
Does Exist!
Excerpts from the Opinion by Judge Noonan, Ninth Circuit Judge on
Petition No. 03-71868 Agency No. A77-382-015
"Surender Jeet Singh petitions for review of the decision by the
Board of Immigration Appeals (the Board), denying him asylum,
withholding of deportation, and relief under the Convention Against
Torture (CAT). Holding that the Board’s credibility determination
cannot be sustained, we remand.
"The RAW does exist. It is under the office of the Prime Minister of
India. It does engage in counterterrorism.
"It has been suggested that we cannot take notice of the RAW’s
existence and operations because we are limited in our review to the
administrative record upon which the deportation
order is based and the Attorney General’s findings of fact. 8 U.S.C.
§ 1252(b)(4); Fisher v. INS, 79 F.3d 955, 963 (9th Cir. 1996) (en
banc) (citing the predecessor statute 8 U.S.C. § 1105a(a)(4)). But
it is nonsense to suppose that we are so cabined and confined that
we cannot exercise the ordinary power of any court to take notice of
facts that are beyond
dispute. We can notice that the government of India exists. We can
notice that the office of the Prime Minister of India exists. We can
notice that a part of the Prime Minister of India’s office is the
RAW.
"Every case “involves the use of hundreds or thousands of
non-evidence facts.”... Administrative cases and the review of
administrative decisions are no exception to this universal truth.
An agency or an appeals court could not function if it had to depend
on proof in the record of facts “capable of accurate and ready
determination by resort to sources whose accuracy cannot be
reasonably questioned.”....
"...The existence and operations of the RAW are readily known
...(That)... (i)ts situation in the office of the Prime Minister is
a matter of common knowledge. ...We are compelled to reverse an
adverse credibility finding by the Board whose centerpiece is lack
of evidence of the existence of the RAW.
Petition GRANTED. The case is REMANDED to the Board"
17
October, 2007
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