Opinion
No. 09-73071 Agency No. A88-590-298
04-30-2014
HARBHAJAN SINGH, Petitioner, v. ERIC H. HOLDER, Jr., Attorney General, Respondent.
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
MEMORANDUM
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
On Petition for Review of an Order of the
Board of Immigration Appeals
Argued and Submitted April 10, 2014
San Francisco, California
Before: SCHROEDER and CALLAHAN, Circuit Judges, and PRATT, Senior District Judge.
The Honorable Robert W. Pratt, Senior United States District Judge for the Southern District of Iowa, sitting by designation.
Petitioner Harbhajan Singh ("Petitioner"), a native and citizen of India, appeals the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA") denying his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture ("CAT"). We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252, and we deny the petition.
Substantial evidence supports the BIA's adverse credibility determination. See Shrestha v. Holder, 590 F.3d 1034, 1039-40 (9th Cir. 2010). Petitioner provided inconsistent accounts of his alleged history of persecution to the Canadian and U.S. immigration authorities, and was unable to supply an adequate and persuasive explanation for the inconsistencies. He was also unresponsive on cross-examination and when questioned by the immigration judge. Therefore, we affirm the BIA's finding that Petitioner was not credible. Furthermore, we agree that the two affidavits Petitioner submitted in support of his application are by themselves insufficient to establish his asylum eligibility.
We further conclude that the admission of the Canadian immigration documents was not fundamentally unfair such that it violated Petitioner's due process rights. See Sanchez v. Holder, 704 F.3d 1107, 1109 (9th Cir. 2012).
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Since Petitioner did not satisfy the less demanding burden of showing asylum eligibility, we must also conclude that he failed to shoulder the more stringent clear probability standard applicable to his withholding of removal claim. See Farah v. Ashcroft, 348 F.3d 1153, 1156 (9th Cir. 2003). As for Petitioner's CAT claim, it must also be rejected as it was based on the same evidence that the BIA concluded was insufficient to establish Petitioner's asylum eligibility. See id. at 1157.
Accordingly, the petition is DENIED.