Cite as: 537 U. S. 12 (2002)
Per Curiam
portance in the immigration context. The BIA has not yet considered the "changed circumstances" issue. And every consideration that classically supports the law's ordinary remand requirement does so here. The agency can bring its expertise to bear upon the matter; it can evaluate the evidence; it can make an initial determination; and, in doing so, it can, through informed discussion and analysis, help a court later determine whether its decision exceeds the leeway that the law provides.
These basic considerations indicate that the Court of Appeals committed clear error here. It seriously disregarded the agency's legally mandated role. Instead, it independently created potentially far-reaching legal precedent about the significance of political change in Guatemala, a highly complex and sensitive matter. And it did so without giving the BIA the opportunity to address the matter in the first instance in light of its own expertise.
The Court of Appeals rested its conclusion upon its belief that the basic record evidence on the matter—the 1997 State Department report about Guatemala—compelled a finding of insufficiently changed circumstances. But that foundation is legally inadequate for two reasons. First, the State Department report is, at most, ambiguous about the matter. The bulk of the report makes clear that considerable change has occurred. The report says, for example, that in December 1996 the Guatemalan Government and the guerrillas signed a peace agreement, that in March 1996 there was a cease fire, that the guerrillas then disbanded as a fighting force, that "the guerrillas renounced the use of force to achieve political goals," and that "there was [a] marked improvement in the overall human rights situation." Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U. S. Dept. of State, Guatemala-Profile of Asylum Claims & Country Conditions 2-4 (June 1997).
As the Court of Appeals stressed, two parts of the report can be read to the contrary. They say that (1) even "after
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