Yunbo Song v. Merrick Garland


NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS OCT 25 2021 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT YUNBO SONG, No. 15-72252 Petitioner, Agency No. A206-531-905 v. MEMORANDUM* MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals Submitted October 19, 2021** Pasadena, California Before: R. NELSON and VANDYKE, Circuit Judges, and SCHREIER,*** District Judge. Yunbo Song, a citizen of China, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) decision affirming an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) * This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. ** The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2). *** The Honorable Karen E. Schreier, United States District Judge for the District of South Dakota, sitting by designation. denial of her applications for asylum and withholding of removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act and deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). “We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 to review final orders of removal,” Wang v. Sessions, 861 F.3d 1003, 1007 (9th Cir. 2017) (citation omitted), and deny the petition. “We review factual findings, including adverse credibility determinations, for substantial evidence.” Id. (quoting Garcia v. Holder, 749 F.3d 785, 789 (9th Cir. 2014)). This means that for us “to reverse such a finding we must find that the evidence not only supports a contrary conclusion, but compels it.” Id. (cleaned up). “In assessing an adverse credibility finding . . . we must look to the totality of the circumstances and all relevant factors.” Alam v. Garland, ___ F.4th ___, No. 19- 72744, 2021 WL 4075331, at *5 (9th Cir. Sept. 8, 2021) (en banc) (cleaned up). Song testified inconsistently regarding whether she worked after she was arrested. Initially, Song testified that she did not return to work after her release from her detention on April 11, 2012. But when she was confronted with the fact that she stated on her asylum application that she worked until December 2012, she testified that she would go back to work when the restaurant was busy. The IJ found this inconsistency to be material because Song’s testimony ranged from never returning to work, to going back to work occasionally, to working sufficiently that she felt it necessary to state on the asylum application that she 2 worked until December 2012. The record supports the determination that Song’s testimony on this point was inconsistent. Song testified that she was in church on Sunday, April 8, 2012, when she was arrested. The IJ found it implausible that there was no mention during the house church service that it was Easter Sunday, a significant Christian holiday. See Shrestha v. Holder, 590 F.3d 1034, 1039 (9th Cir. 2010) (noting that an IJ may base a credibility determination on the inherent plausibility of the applicant’s account). The Department of Homeland Security attorney …

Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals