NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MAY 18 2020 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT LORETA KHACHIKIAN, No. 17-70997 Petitioner, Agency No. A096-151-781 v. MEMORANDUM* WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals Submitted May 14, 2020** Pasadena, California Before: EBEL,*** WARDLAW, and OWENS, Circuit Judges. Loreta Khachikian petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) order dismissing her appeal from the Immigration Judge’s (IJ) denial of her application for asylum, withholding of removal and protection under * This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. ** The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2). *** The Honorable David M. Ebel, United States Circuit Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, sitting by designation. the Convention Against Torture (CAT). We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252. We grant in part and deny in part the petition for review. 1. Because Khachikian’s testimony is marred by inconsistencies about issues that go to the “heart of [her] claim of persecution, we are bound to accept the IJ’s adverse credibility finding.” Wang v. I.N.S., 352 F.3d 1250, 1259 (9th Cir. 2003). Khachikian failed to establish her Iranian nationality. Although she concedes that she offered the Immigration Court a fraudulent birth certificate, she contends she did not know it was fraudulent when she introduced it into evidence. In Yeimane-Berhe v. Ashcroft, we found that because there was “no evidence that [the petitioner] knew or should have known that the medical certificate was counterfeit” and because the petitioner’s story about how she obtained the forged medical certificate “was detailed, internally consistent” and corroborated by other evidence, it was improper for the IJ there to base an adverse credibility finding on the fraudulent medical document alone. 393 F.3d 907, 912–13 (9th Cir. 2014). By contrast, here, Khachikian offered two different names for the person who gave her the forged birth certificate, and offered contradictory statements as to whether she first received the certificate in Mexico before entering the United States, or in San Diego after she had crossed over the border. Thus, unlike in Yeimane-Berhe, there was good reason for the IJ to doubt Khachikian’s story regarding how she obtained 2 the fraudulent birth certificate. Furthermore, although Khachikian initially testified that she was not allowed any visitors during her 16 days in Evin Prison, she later testified that her attorney and husband visited her in detention. She also suggested she may have only been detained for 11–13 days. 2. Beyond her testimony, Khachikian offers no reliable documentary evidence to support her claims for asylum and withholding of removal. For example, to prove that she was charged with trying to convert her coworker to Christianity, Khachikian offered the court an English-language translation of her Iranian court summons. However, ...
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