FILED
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
NOV 14 2017
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
ALBA ZUCELY AGUILAR GUZMAN, No. 11-73819
Petitioner, Agency No. A088-720-384
v.
JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS III, Attorney MEMORANDUM*
General,
Respondent.
On Petition for Review of an Order of the
Board of Immigration Appeals
Submitted October 5, 2017**
Pasadena, California
Before: RAWLINSON and N.R. SMITH, Circuit Judges, and KORMAN,***
District Judge.
*
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 Edward R. Korman, United States District Judge for
the Eastern District of New York, sitting by designation.
Alba Zucely Aguilar Guzman petitions for review of the decision of the
Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) affirming the immigration judge’s (IJ) denial
of her application for asylum and related relief.
Guzman testified at the hearing before the IJ that she fears persecution
and/or torture if she returns to her native Guatemala. Specifically, she claimed that
her husband, formerly the mayor of Santa Ana Huista, Guatemala, had been
murdered because he supported a particular political candidate, and that she fears
that those who murdered him will kill her too. Nevertheless, when she first arrived
in the United States, Guzman swore under oath that, even though her husband had
been killed in Guatemala, she was not afraid to return there, and that she had come
to the United States in order to work. Finding that Guzman had not given a
reasonable explanation for the discrepancy between her initial sworn statement and
her later testimony, the IJ decided to “give no credence to any of [her] testimony.”
Consequently, the IJ proceeded to deny her applications for asylum, withholding of
removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture.
Although the record evidence demonstrates that at least some of Guzman’s
testimony before the IJ was true, under the Real ID Act, “only the most
extraordinary circumstances will justify overturning an adverse credibility
determination.” Jibril v. Gonzales, 423 F.3d 1129, 1138 n.1 (9th Cir. 2005).
2
Indeed, reversing an IJ’s credibility determination requires a finding “that the
evidence not only supports [a contrary] conclusion, but compels it.” Rizk v. Holder,
629 F.3d 1083, 1087 (9th Cir. 2011) (quoting INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478,
481 n.1 (1992)). Such evidence is absent here.
Specifically, Guzman attempted to explain away her initial sworn statement
by claiming that she was bullied by immigration officials into downplaying her
fears. Nevertheless, after hearing testimony from both Guzman and the officials
who interviewed her at the border, the IJ concluded that Guzman failed to provide
a reasonable explanation for the discrepancy between her sworn statement and her
later testimony. Nothing in the record compels the conclusion that this finding was
incorrect. Guzman argues that the IJ and BIA ignored inconsistencies in the
immigration officers’ testimony, but she cannot identify a single point of
contradiction in their respective accounts. Neither does the record support
Guzman’s claim that Officer Moreno exhibited “extraordinary bias.” As we have
stated, “[i]f the IJ reasonably rejects the alien’s explanation, or if the alien fails to
provide a plausible explanation, the IJ may properly rely on an inconsistency as
support for an adverse credibility determination.” Id. at 1088 (internal citations
omitted).
PETITION DENIED.
3