Case Explained: CAO V. BLANCHE

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Filed: 2026-07-24 The ninth-circuit denied Xianmin Cao’s petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ decision denying his applications for asylum and withholding of removal. The court applied the substantial evidence standard to review the agency’s adverse credibility determination, which was supported by inconsistencies in Cao’s testimony regarding whether he had entered Vietnam and voluntarily returned to China, as well as discrepancies between his testimony and documentary evidence concerning his education level. Although the court acknowledged that the agency improperly relied on Cao’s lack of familiarity with Lutheran doctrine to undermine his credibility, it held that this unsupported reasoning could be disregarded because substantial evidence remained from the other identified inconsistencies to support the adverse credibility finding. Consequently, without credible testimony, the record did not compel a conclusion that Cao experienced past persecution or had a well-founded fear of future persecution in China. Do It For The Case Law is a news reporting service. Nothing in this episode constitutes legal advice.