The petitioner, Ying Jin Lin, a native and citizen of the People’s Republic of China (“China”), seeks review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) final order upholding an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of her applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the United Nations Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). Discerning substantial evidence in the record in support of the BIA’s order, we deny her petition for review.
Petitioner Lin was born October 11, 1981, in the Fujian Province of China. She arrived at Los Angeles International Airport in July 2001, lacking valid entry documents. Accordingly, she was detained and a few days later the INS issued a Notice to Appear charging Lin with re-movability pursuant to Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) § 212(a)(7)(A)(i)(I), 8 U.S.C. § 1182(7)(A)(i)(I). At a hearing in April 2008, Lin conceded removability as charged. She subsequently applied for asylum and withholding of removal, and her application was also treated as a request for withholding of removal based on the United Nations Convention Against Torture (“CAT”).
Including Lin’s testimony at a hearing before the IJ in February 2005, she has had four occasions to explain the basis for her asylum application. Initially, she delivered a sworn statement, through a Mandarin interpreter, to an immigration officer at the airport in Los Angeles. In this statement, Lin said that she had “made the mistake of attending a meeting,” and was “taken into custody on suspicion of’ membership in Falun Gong. While in custody, she was “beaten up and narrowly escaped being violated.” Lin also indicated that she, along with the others who had been arrested, was “bailed out with the advice that each of us is fined 40,000 Ren-minbi (about $5,000) or be arrested and jailed again.” The statement concludes, “I could not afford the fine so I escaped.”
Two days after her initial interview, Lin was referred to an asylum officer for a credible fear interview. That interview, again conducted with the aid of an interpreter, was summarized on a hand-written form. It reads, in relevant part:
The Applicant was standing in front of a friend’s house with 10-12 other school friends after a party. Applicant stated that as they talked, suddenly police appeared accusing the group of practitioners of [sic] Falun Gong.... The group was beaten, hand-cuffed, taken to the police station and detained for 10 days, where they suffered further beatings/kicks. Friends bailed the Applicant out & she fled the country.
Based on this interview, the asylum officer determined that Lin had established a credible fear of persecution, and she was allowed to remain in the country pending a hearing before an IJ.
Lin’s Application for Asylum and Withholding of Removal, submitted under oath in February 2005, was based on political opinion and membership in a particular social group. Lin claimed that “The Chinese Government falsely accused me of being a member of Falun Gong.” She explained that one night as she and her friends were drinking and loudly “partying” in a private room inside a club, “a policeman suddenly kicked open the door to room [sic] we were in.” The police yelled at Lin and her friends and hit them with batons, and Lin “fled towards the door of the club.” As she reached the outside of the club, Lin was “grabbed by an officer who was waiting” there, “handcuffed,” and taken to the police station. Upon arrival at the station, Lin was informed that she had been arrested due to participation in Falun Gong, which she denied continuously during the ten days she was detained. Her captors gave her little food and beat her when she refused to confess to involvement with Falun Gong. Lin “was eventually released ... with the help of a family friend.” As Lin described it, this contact of her father’s “interceded on [her] behalf and secured [her] release.”
Lin was the only witness who testified at her subsequent hearing before the IJ. She testified that she was arrested “in a bar,”
On cross-examination, Lin repeatedly disputed the accuracy of her credible fear interview, and claimed she had never said she was “outside a house in front of a street” when she was arrested. Instead, she claimed she was in a room in a karaoke bar. She explained that the arrest took place “close to a friend of mine’s house.”
Lin was also questioned about the circumstances of her release from jail. She testified that “[m]y father bailed me out through his friends.” She indicated that her father borrowed the funds to make the payment for her release, which amounted to 40,000 to 50,000 Renminbi, and later referred to a particular “person ... my father went through with the money and got me out of the detention center....” On re-direct, Lin testified that the payment “was a bribe.”
The IJ questioned Lin directly regarding the details of her incarceration. She testified that “they beat me almost every day, every time they don’t ... like my answer. ...” After her release, Lin called on a doctor to attend to her injuries, which included bruises, swelling, and scabs from where the beatings had broken her skin. The doctor gave her “some medicine” and applied “seven or eight” bandages to her wounds. Lin could not attest to any similar treatment of her classmates or coworkers, because she never saw them during her detention and never spoke with them again.
Although initially the IJ said he thought Lin testified “very well,” after taking the case under advisement he issued an oral decision discussing “inconsistencies and implausibilities with respect to the material aspects of her asylum claim.” The IJ accordingly ruled that her testimony was not credible and consequently that her applications would be rejected. Lin timely appealed the IJ’s ruling to the BIA, which dismissed her appeal. 1 This petition followed.
II. Discussion
We begin our analysis with the petitioner’s asylum claim. To qualify for asylum, an applicant must establish that she has a “well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42)(A);
Bebri v. Mukasey,
In making a finding of adverse credibility, an “IJ must provide a ‘specific, cogent, and supportable explanation for rejecting an alien’s testimony.’ ”
Abdelmalek v. Mukasey,
Here, the IJ concluded that “inconsistencies and implausibilities” rendered Lin’s testimony incredible, and the BIA dismissed her appeal, finding that the IJ’s adverse credibility determination was not clearly erroneous.
See Lin v. Mukasey,
In dismissing Lin’s appeal of the IJ’s adverse credibility determination, the BIA identified several concerns with Lin’s testimony. First, it noted inconsistencies with respect to Lin’s accounts of where the arrest occurred and the circumstances of
In addition to these reasons for upholding the IJ’s credibility determination, the BIA also observed that Lin was arrested along with several of her friends, each of whom could have corroborated her testimony, yet Lin claimed to have never attempted to contact any of them after the arrest. Not only did this claim itself call into question the veracity of Lin’s account, but also Lin failed to supply any other corroborative evidence to bolster her testimony. Specifically, Lin did not proffer affidavits from her parents, doctor, or witnesses of her arrest, nor did she provide doctor’s records, photographs, or any documentation whatsoever of her claimed incarceration and injuries. Although a lack of documentation is “not fatal” to an asylum-applicant’s case, it still may weigh against the applicant’s credibility.
Estrada-Henao v. Gonzales,
Ultimately, given the myriad grounds for the BIA’s finding of adverse credibility, we cannot find that “any reasonable adjudicator would be compelled to conclude to the contrary” with respect to Lin’s asylum claim.
See Rashad,
Lin’s application for withholding of removal fares no better. Because Lin has failed to establish eligibility for asylum, she necessarily cannot establish eligibility for withholding of removal, which demands a higher showing of proof.
Vallejo Piedrahita v. Mukasey,
Notes
. The B1A also rejected Lin’s argument "that she should be granted asylum because she has married in the United States and given birth to two children here, and thus fears persecution for having violated China’s birth planning laws.” Lin has waived this issue by failing to assert it in her opening brief.
See Nat'l Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa. v. West Lake Academy,
. Lin need not prove actual involvement with Falun Gong to support her asylum claim, only that the Chinese government suspected her of such involvement and persecuted her based on this suspicion.
Cf. Vasquez v. INS,
. When first asked directly, Lin testified that the only reason for her arrest was that "we were kind of high in that bar with a lot of friends and we drank a lot and we sing and we dance.”