In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 20-2285 BUKOLA LOMI OMOWOLE, Petitioner, v. MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General of the United States, Respondent. ____________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. No. A055-580-956 ____________ ARGUED FEBRUARY 10, 2021 — DECIDED JULY 29, 2021 ____________________ Before MANION, KANNE, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges. ROVNER, Circuit Judge. Bukola Lomi Omowole seeks re- view of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals sus- taining the findings of two immigration judges that she is both removable from the United States for having procured an entry visa by fraud and not entitled to asylum or withhold- ing of removal. Because the decision of the Board rests on the 2 No. 20-2285 immigration judges’ adverse findings as to Omowole’s credi- bility and that of her ex-husband, and those findings are sup- ported by substantial evidence, we deny the petition for re- view. I. Omowole, a native and citizen of Nigeria, married her first husband, Ayebamileru Festus Omowole (“Festus”), in Janu- ary 2007. Festus had won a diversity lottery visa for admis- sion to the United States in 2006, and Omowole, as his spouse, was eligible for a derivative visa. But by the time the two of them emigrated (separately) to this country in the second half of 2007 they were, by their own account, estranged as a result of Festus’s disclosure that he had fathered a child with an- other woman before he married Omowole. Upon arrival in the United States, Omowole settled in Indiana and Festus in California. The two never cohabited in this country as hus- band and wife. Omowole would later testify that she spoke with her husband on the phone regularly and that she visited him in California for a month. Ultimately, however, they were unable to reconcile, and in 2011, they divorced. Festus subsequently married the mother of his child. When he then attempted to become a naturalized citizen of the U.S., and at the same time sought lawful permanent resi- dent status for his new wife and his child, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (“USCIS”) began to investigate whether his marriage to Omowole had been a sham entered into for the purpose of facilitating her entry into the United States. USCIS officer Nai Saelee, of the Fraud Detection and National Security Unit, interviewed Festus in 2013, challeng- ing him persistently as to whether the marriage to Omowole was genuine. Festus ultimately admitted that it was not and No. 20-2285 3 executed an affidavit to that effect. 1 Saelee subsequently pre- pared a statement of findings summarizing the interview, Festus’s admission, and the affidavit. Based on those findings, the USCIS concluded that the marriage was a sham and that Omowole had procured her entry visa by fraud. Festus and Omowole were both placed in removal proceedings. 2 Judge Vinikoor conducted an evidentiary hearing on Omowole’s removal at which Omowole, Festus, Omowole’s brother, and officer Salee testified. Omowole recounted the …
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