NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION File Name: 18a0372n.06 Nos. 14-3716/4018 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED Jul 24, 2018 IRINA SOBIERAJSKA, ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk ) Petitioner, ) ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW v. ) FROM THE UNITED STATES ) BOARD OF IMMIGRATION JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS, III, Attorney ) APPEALS General, ) ) Respondent. ) ) BEFORE: GUY, BATCHELDER, and BUSH, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM. Irina Sobierajska petitions this court for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) dismissing her appeal from the denial of her applications for asylum and withholding of removal. We deny Sobierajska’s petitions for review. Sobierajska was born in 1963 in Tajikistan, then part of the Soviet Union. In 1993, during the civil war in Tajikistan, Sobierajska and her parents fled to Belarus. Sobierajska moved to Poland and married a Polish citizen in 1995. After the birth of her daughter, Sobierajska applied for Polish citizenship, which she was granted in 2001. In 2004, Sobierajska and her family entered the United States on tourist visas, which they overstayed. Four months after their entry, Sobierajska gave birth to her son. Sobierajska and her husband divorced the next year, in 2005. In 2006, Sobierajska filed an application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). Sobierajska then withdrew the application, asserting that the preparer defrauded her and submitted a false application. The Nos. 14-3716/4018 Sobierajska v. Sessions Department of Homeland Security subsequently served Sobierajska with a notice to appear in removal proceedings and charged her with removability as an alien who has remained in the United States longer than permitted. See 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(1)(B). Appearing before an immigration judge (IJ), Sobierajska admitted the factual allegations in the notice to appear and conceded removability as charged. Sobierajska filed another application for asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT protection, seeking relief based on her Russian ethnicity and Russian Orthodox religion. Sobierajska asserted that she cannot return to Tajikistan because the Muslim country has forced most Russian-speaking minorities to flee, that she has no citizenship in Belarus, and that she faces job discrimination and social harm in Poland, where anti-Russian sentiment runs high. At the merits hearing, Sobierajska testified that she was born in Tajikistan when it was part of the Soviet Union. Sobierajska’s father was Russian, her mother was Ukrainian, and they were members of the Russian Orthodox Church. Sobierajska graduated from a technical school in Tajikistan in 1980 and worked as an engineer. According to Sobierajska, the situation in Tajikistan became difficult for ethnic Russians beginning in 1986, when a curfew was imposed and the military presence was increased. Sobierajska testified that ethnic Russians were told to leave Tajikistan. After Tajikistan’s independence in 1991, the civil war started, resulting in ethnic violence and “riots, destabilization and chaos.” Sobierajska and her parents decided to flee to Belarus in 1993. The IJ questioned Sobierajska about a document indicating that she was allowed to reside permanently in Belarus. ...
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