NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION File Name: 18a0502n.06 Case No. 18-3019 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED Oct 11, 2018 LIZHI SHI, ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk ) Petitioner, ) ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW v. ) FROM THE UNITED STATES ) BOARD OF IMMIGRATION JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS III, Attorney General, ) APPEALS ) Respondent. ) OPINION BEFORE: GIBBONS, SUTTON, and McKEAGUE, Circuit Judges. McKEAGUE, Circuit Judge. Lizhi Shi is a native of China and a self-professed Christian. Shi began having issues with Chinese officials when his wife gave birth in 1994, and neither he nor his wife agreed to undergo sterilization or implement birth control. Shi later converted to Christianity and subsequently had an incident when police discovered him at an “underground church” service. A year later, Shi decided to come to the United States. When he had been here for nearly half a year, Shi filed an application for asylum and withholding of removal. After numerous administrative filings, substitutions of attorneys, and a change in venue, Shi had a merits hearing in August 2016 on his application. The Immigration Judge (“IJ”) denied Shi’s application based on an adverse credibility determination due to inconsistencies and omissions in his testimony. The IJ also found that Shi provided insufficient corroborations and explanations of the inconsistencies and omissions. On appeal, the Board of Immigration Appeals Case No. 18-3019, Shi v. Sessions (“BIA”) found that the record sufficiently supported the IJ’s credibility determination. Finding substantial evidence to support the adverse credibility finding, we DENY Shi’s petition for review. I Shi’s troubles began in his native China when his wife gave birth in October 1994. Chinese officials wanted to prevent Shi and his wife from having additional children, so they asked his wife to be sterilized or fitted with an IUD.1 During childbirth, however, Shi’s wife experienced complications, preventing the officials from performing the operation. So they asked Shi to have a vasectomy, but he refused, was possibly beaten, and went into hiding. And officials possibly confiscated his family land. Nine years later, Shi became a Christian. His family did not convert, but they were aware of his faith. In September 2006, the police invaded an “underground church” service that Shi was attending at one of the congregation member’s home. When the officers disrupted the service, they either arrested Shi and the other church members or arrested just the homeowner. They also possibly confiscated Shi’s bible. In one of Shi’s versions of the story, he claims officers took him to an interrogation room, said he was a member of an antigovernment cult, hit and kicked him, held him for two or three days, and forced him to sign a guarantee letter promising not to do illegal acts, participate in antigovernment gatherings, or to proselytize the “cult.” Shi came to the United States with a visitor visa on January 17, 2007. On June 6, 2007, he applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture. After over ...
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