# United States Court of Appeals

For the Seventh Circuit Chicago, Illinois 60604

Submitted October 29 , 2015 * Decided November 30 , 2015

Before

DIANE P. WOOD
, Chief Judge

RICHARD A. POSNER
, Circuit Judge

FRANK H. EASTERBROOK
, Circuit Judge

No. 15

- 1543

YIXING REN
, Petitioner
,

v

.

LORETTA E. LYNCH
, Attorney General of the United States
, Respondent

. Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals.

No. A089

- 695

- 530

O R D E R

Yixing Ren, a Chinese citizen who already had been denied asylum and removed from the United States, returned without authorization and a decade later applied again for asylum (as well as withholding of removal ) based on the alleged mistreatment he experienced in China as a result of his practice of Falun Gong. An immigration judge characteriz ed Ren’s asylum application as frivolous and de nied all relief , and the Board of Immigr ation Appeals upheld the ruling

. We lack jurisdiction to review the denial of

* After examining the briefs and record, we have concluded that oral argument is unnecessary. Th e appeal is thus submitted on the brief s and record. See F ED

. R. A PP

. P. 34(a)(2)(C)

. NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1No. 15

- 1543 Page 2

Ren’s application for asylum
, and substantial evidence supports the denial of withholding. W e th us dismiss the petition in part and deny i t in part.

Ren by now ought to be familiar with this country’s immigration system. In 1996 his application for asylum

— based on his alleged involvement in an anti communist student movement

— was denied, and he was removed to China. He re entered the United Sta tes without inspection in 1998

. Ten years later, i n 2008
, he again applied for asylum as well as for withholding of removal ; this time he claimed that he had been persecuted in China because of his practice of Falun Gong. He pinpointed the dates of
persecu tion as taking place before his first entry to the United States in 1996

— when he lost his postal

- service job
, and was beaten, tied up, and de tained

— and during the

two

- year interval ( from late 1996 to 1998) after he was re turne d to China

— when, he says, his practice of Falun Gong led to his mother being tortured to death and his being detained for 14 days. During these two years
, Ren counted four additional encounters with Chinese police (though he testified that he was able to avoid additional beatings).

Th e removal proceedings were protracted, and the IJ conducted several hearings between 2009 and 2012 before eventually denying all relief. She explained that Ren was statutorily barred from asylum relief because he did not file his appl ication within one
yea r of arriving in the United States, see 8 U.S.C. § 1158(a)(2)(B); he already had filed an asylum application that was denied
, see id. § 1158(a)(2)(C) ; and he did not show that changed or extraordinary circumstances affected his eligibility for asylum, id. § 1158(a)(2)(D)

. She denied Ren’s request for withholding based on inconsistencies in the asylum applications that he filed in 1996 and 2008
, as well as in his oral and written

statements concerning the 2008 application . The IJ found Ren not credible in large part because he omitted any mention of his Falun Gong practice from his 1996 asylum application. S he disbelieved his testimony that an immigration officer at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City ha d prevented him from telling his

sto ry during the airport interview by threatening his life and telling him to “shut up

. ” The IJ also mention e d that Ren had testified inconsistently about key dates in the two asylum applications
, and she noted key omission s in his written statement about matters

t hat he addressed in his oral testimony

— for instance his statement that villagers beat his mother because he practiced Falun Gong. Based on those inconsistencies, the IJ determined that Ren deliberately had fabricat ed portions of his asylum application
, and she found the application frivolous
, see id. § 1158(d)(6); 8 C.F.R. § 1208.20, permanently disqualifyi ng Ren from most forms of immigration relief. The BIA upheld the IJ’s ruling

.No. 15

- 1543 Page 3

In his petition for review, Ren states generally that the BIA erred in dismissing his challenge to the denial of his second application for asylum. But we lack jurisdiction to

re view the IJ’s factual finding that the untimely second filing was not justifie d by changed or extraordinary circumstances. See 8 U.S.C. § 1158(a)(3); Yang v. Holder , 760
F .3d 660, 664

– 65 (7th Cir. 2014)

.

Ren next challenges the denial of his request for withholding of removal and insists that he provided plausible explanations for any discrepancies in his story

. But the IJ was not required to accept Ren’s explanation s if there was a different permissible view of the evidence
, see Surganova v. Holder , 612 F.3d 901, 904 (7th Cir. 2010); Krishnapillai v. Holder , 563 F.3d 606, 618 (7th Cir. 2009)
, and there was ample support in the record for the IJ’s adverse credibility finding. As the IJ noted, Ren lied when he stated that his earlier asylum application was based on his practice of Falun Gong , when in fact the earlier application does not mention Falun Gong. Moreover, Ren provided directly conflicting accounts for significant events that happened to him in the first half of 1996

. Ren testified in 2011, for instance, that he was fired from his postal

- service job in March 1996, applied fo r a passpo rt in China the following month , and was beaten by villagers one month after that ; according to hi s 1996 asylum application, however, he was living in Hong Kong and Ecuador at this time. Finally, Ren omitted from his written application several d etails ( related to his detention a fter his return to China and persecution his family faced) that he presented in his oral testimony . The IJ was entitled to conclude that Ren was trying to embellish the basis for his withholding claim. See Toure v. Holder
, 624 F.3d 422, 429 (7th Cir. 2010); Hassan v. Holder , 571 F.3d 631, 638 (7th Cir. 2009).

Ren next challenges the IJ’s determination that his asylum application is frivolous

— a determination that makes him permanently ineligible for most kinds of immigratio n relief

. See 8 U.S.C. § 1158(d)(6); 8 C.F.R. § 1208.20. But s ufficient evidence in the record supports the IJ’s finding that Ren knowingly submitted a frivolous asylum application. See 8 C.F.R. § 1208.20. Ren twice was warned of the consequences of lying on his application materials. See Albu v. Holder , 761 F.3d 817, 820

– 21 (7th Cir. 2014) ; Pavlov v. Holder , 697 F.3d 616, 618 (7th Cir. 2012). Despite t hose warnings , he gave testimony in 2011 and 2012 that c onflicted with the materials from his 1996 asylum application and lied (as already noted) about whether Falun Gong was a basis of that application. T he numerous and material inconsistencies in his applications , including the chan ged bases for asylum relief and discrepancies concerning his whereabouts and practice of Falun Gong in the first half of 1996 , support the IJ’s conclusion that RenNo. 15

- 1543 Page 4

deliberately fabricated parts of his story. See Siddique v. Mukasey , 547 F.3d 814, 816

– 17 (7th Cir. 2008)

. Accordingly , we D ISMISS the petition for review with respect to Ren’s asylum application and otherwise D ENY the petition.