Singh v. Gonzales

• Decision Date: 19 July 2007
• Docket Number: No. 06-2594.,06-2594.
• Citation: 495 F.3d 553
• Parties: Amarjit SINGH; Dripinder Singh; Manjit Kaur, Petitioners, v. Alberto GONZALES, Attorney General of the United States of America, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

495 F.3d 553 Amarjit SINGH; Dripinder Singh; Manjit Kaur, Petitioners,
v.
Alberto GONZALES, Attorney General of the United States of America, Respondent. No. 06-2594. United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit. Submitted: January 12, 2007. Filed: July 19, 2007.

[495 F.3d 554]

Counsel who presented argument on behalf of the appellant was Barbara Davydov Bleisch, St. Louis, MO.

Counsel who presented argument on behalf of appellee was Lindsay Chichester, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, DC. Also appearing on the brief for appellee was Jennifer Levings, Office of Immigration Litigation, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, DC.

Before COLLOTON, BRIGHT, and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.

COLLOTON, Circuit Judge.

Amarjit Singh, his wife (Manjit Kaur), and their son (Dripinder Singh) petition for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. The Board affirmed without opinion an immigration judge's denial of the petitioners' application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. We deny the petition.

I.

Petitioners are natives and citizens of India who practice the Sikh faith. They entered the United States in October 1996 on visitor visas. In February 1997, Singh applied for asylum and withholding of removal on behalf of himself and his family.

495 F.3d 555

Singh contends that Indian authorities have persecuted him for his political beliefs in the past and will continue to do so if he is returned to India. An immigration judge conducted a hearing on the claims for relief, but concluded that Singh and his family did not qualify for asylum, withholding of removal, or relief under the CAT. The BIA affirmed without opinion.

At a hearing before the immigration judge, Singh testified that beginning in 1984, he began to support the movement for Sikh independence as a member of the All-India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF). The separatist movement — called the "Khalistan" movement by its supporters — sought to establish a Sikh state in the Punjab region. Initially, Singh limited his participation in the movement to helping other Sikhs obtain food, shelter, and employment. By 1991, however, Singh's activities became political in nature, and he participated in organized rallies designed to influence the central government.

Singh testified that on October 28, 1994, he attended an AISSF meeting where participants organized a rally to voice grievances with the government. Two days later, Singh said, police officials took him to the local police station, where they beat him and demanded information about the meeting. According to Singh, after four days of detention and physical abuse, his family bribed the police to release Singh from custody. Singh testified that another round of abuse occurred in August 1995. Sikh separatists had planned protests to coincide with India's independence day, and Singh testified that police officials detained him for several days and beat him severely for his role in planning the protests. He explained that his parents again secured his release with a bribe.

Kaur, Singh's wife, also testified at the hearing. She stated that police returned to the family home in June 1996 after the arrest of a priest at the local Sikh temple. By this time, she said, Singh had gone into hiding, anticipating the arrival of the police, but Kaur stayed behind with her father-in-law and son. When the police arrived at the home, they took Kaur and Singh's father to the station. Kaur testified that the authorities beat and raped her at the station, in the presence of her father-in-law, because of her husband's participation in the Khalistan movement. She said that she never told Singh of the rape, because she was ashamed. Kaur testified that her father-in-law secured her release, but that police returned to the home about a month later to search for pro-Khalistan materials. Kaur's neighbors intervened to prevent her from being seized, and Kaur explained that after the police left, she went into hiding with her son.

Singh and Kaur later decided to emigrate with their son to the United States. When the government commenced removal proceedings, Singh and Kaur conceded removability, but renewed their requests for asylum. They initially filed their claim in San Francisco, but after the San Francisco IJ discovered that they had moved to Missouri — or had lived there all along — he transferred the case to the proper Immigration Court. Eventually, an IJ in St. Louis heard the case and concluded that Singh and Kaur were not eligible for asylum. Citing inconsistencies in the evidence and a lack of corroboration, the IJ concluded that Singh and Kaur were not credible, and that they had failed to satisfy their burden of proof and persuasion for their claims. The Board affirmed the IJ's decision without opinion, so we treat the IJ's opinion as that of the Board. Prokopenko v. Ashcroft, 372 F.3d 941, 944 (8th Cir.2004).

495 F.3d 556

II.

The Attorney General may grant asylum to an alien who is unwilling to return to his home country because of a persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. See 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b)(1); id. § 1101(a)(42)(A). "To establish a well-founded fear of future persecution, the alien must show that he subjectively fears persecution, and that there is credible, direct, and specific evidence that a reasonable person in the alien's position would fear persecution if returned to the alien's country." Mamana v. Gonzales, 436 F.3d 966, 968 (8th Cir.2006). We review the IJ's decision for substantial evidence, Menendez-Donis v. Ashcroft, 360 F.3d 915, 918 (8th Cir.2004), and will not disturb her findings of fact "unless any reasonable adjudicator would be compelled to conclude to the contrary." 8 U.S.C. § 1252(b)(4)(B). The language of § 1252(b)(4)(B) replaced a "substantial evidence" standard in the former statute, but "we have declined to treat the 1996 amendment as working any material change to the standard of review." Menendez-Donis, 360 F.3d at 918. This is because "Congress seems to have drawn the language for the new statute directly from INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 481 & n. 1, 483-84, 112 S.Ct. 812, 117 L.Ed.2d 38 (1992), a decision construing the former statute," including its "substantial evidence" standard. Menendez-Donis, 360 F.3d at 918.

Singh and Kaur challenge the IJ's adverse credibility determination, arguing that the IJ did not adequately justify her finding. A credibility determination is a finding of fact, and § 1252(b)(4)(B) provides that it should be accepted "unless any reasonable adjudicator would be compelled to conclude to the contrary." See Mamana v. Gonzales, 436 F.3d 966, 968 (8th Cir.2006); Turay v. Ashcroft, 405 F.3d 663, 668 (8th Cir.2005); accord Pilica v. Ashcroft, 388 F.3d 941, 952 (6th Cir.2004).¹ Petitioners contend, however, that we have applied a more demanding standard of review to credibility findings, and that the IJ's adverse finding must be set aside if the IJ did not provide a "specific, cogent reason" for the determination. See Ghasemimehr v. INS, 7 F.3d 1389, 1391 (8th Cir.1993) (per curiam). While the terminology used in some of our cases is not identical to the statute, we believe that the standards...