In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 21-1315 SHUANG DAI, 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. A201-054-344 ____________________ ARGUED OCTOBER 28, 2021 — DECIDED JANUARY 24, 2022 ____________________ Before RIPPLE, HAMILTON, and SCUDDER, Circuit Judges. RIPPLE, Circuit Judge. Shuang Dai, a Chinese citizen, was admitted to the United States on a student visa on December 18, 2010. She later applied for asylum, withholding of re- moval, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”) on the basis of religious persecution. Following a merits hearing, an immigration judge (“IJ”) denied relief, finding that Ms. Dai was not credible and that the evidence 2 No. 21-1315 she produced in support of her application failed to establish past persecution or a well-founded fear of future persecution. The Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirmed without opinion, and Ms. Dai filed a petition for review. Because the IJ’s decision is supported by substantial evidence, we deny the petition. I BACKGROUND A. In Ms. Dai’s written asylum application, she set forth the following factual basis for her claim. In July 2009, while Ms. Dai was away from home, her grandmother was hit by a motorcycle. When Ms. Dai went to the hospital to visit her, 1 she met “Aunt Wang,” her grandmother’s neighbor, who was taking care of her grandmother. According to Ms. Dai, Aunt Wang told her stories from the Bible and prayed with her. After that encounter, she began to participate in gather- ings with Aunt Wang’s church members. She stated that she was formally baptized and became a Christian on April 18, 2010. On November 7, 2010, while the church members were gathered in Ms. Dai’s home, police broke in, confiscated the Bibles and other religious material, and took all of the church members to the police station. The police separated the con- gregants into different rooms, and two police officers interro- gated Ms. Dai. They “ordered [her] to admit that [the group] carried out activities against the Party and the Government,” 1 A.R. 187. Ms. Dai refers to “Aunt Wang” in her written asylum applica- tion, but “Auntie Wong” in her hearing testimony. No. 21-1315 3 2 but Ms. Dai only would admit to being a Christian. Accord- ing to Ms. Dai, “[t]he police became very angry and grasped [her] hair and banged [her] head on the wall and ordered [her] 3 to confess.” At this point, her nose was bleeding, but the po- lice ignored it. They then “ordered [her] to kneel down on the 4 ground and criticize [her]self.” They further ordered her to give the names of her fellow churchgoers; when she re- sponded that she did not know who they were, the police 5 “kept slapping [her] on [her] face.” Ms. Dai “felt dizzy and fell down on the ground,” at which point her interrogators 6 “kicked [her] hard.” After this encounter, …
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals