USCA11 Case: 19-11984 Date Filed: 10/20/2020 Page: 1 of 10 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 19–11984 ________________________ Agency No. A216-171-928 KAGENDRAN RATNAM, Petitioner, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ____________________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals ____________________________ (October 20, 2020) Before JORDAN, LAGOA, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) denied Petitioner Kagendran Ratnam’s application for asylum, 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b)(1)(A), and for withholding of removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 C.F.R. § 208.16(c)(2), and under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), 8 C.F.R. § 208.18(a). The BIA USCA11 Case: 19-11984 Date Filed: 10/20/2020 Page: 2 of 10 specifically affirmed the immigration judge’s adverse credibility determination, which found that Ratnam’s testimony was not credible and that the documents he submitted to prove his identity were unreliable. Ratnam petitioned this Court for review. After briefing and with the benefit of oral argument, we deny the petition. I. On March 17, 2018, Ratnam attempted to enter the United States without valid entry documents in violation of INA § 212(a)(7)(A)(i)(I). 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(7)(A)(i)(I). In response to removal proceedings, Ratnam filed an application for asylum and for withholding of removal under the INA and the CAT, and a hearing was set. Before the hearing, both Ratnam and the government submitted various documents about Ratnam’s identity, including demographic information, and about the current conditions for Tamils in Sri Lanka. According to Ratnam’s testimony at the hearing, he was born in Sri Lanka and is ethnically Tamil; the Sri Lankan army killed his sister, brother, and father; the Sri Lankan army beat him while interrogating him on two occasions; and during the second interrogation, the Sri Lankan army also beat his mother, breaking her hand, and then detained him, removed one of his toenails, and held a gun to his head. Other record evidence cast doubt on that testimony. For example, it suggested that Ratnam’s sister committed suicide; that his brother died in a car accident; and that 2 USCA11 Case: 19-11984 Date Filed: 10/20/2020 Page: 3 of 10 his father died in an accidental drowning. In Ratnam’s asylum application, he did not mention the toenail removal. Ratnam also testified about his journey from Sri Lanka to the United States, in which he asserted he used the passport in the record. At first, he said that he flew from Sri Lanka to Turkey, from Turkey to Haiti, and then from Haiti to the Bahamas. In the Bahamas, he got on a boat that took him to the United States. He explained that he had been locked in a house in Haiti for six months and averred that he had been in no other countries. However, on cross examination, Ratnam stated that he was deported from Haiti the same day that he arrived and that he spent time in Colombia and Panama. He then returned to Haiti, where he stayed for around a ...
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