Opinion ID: 2567
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Findings as to National Enforcement Policies

Text: Although Ji Wen Shi faults the BIA for assessing the objective reasonableness of his claimed fear of sterilization by reference to national enforcement policies, his general challenge to the BIA's factual findings might well be understood to extend to this part of the agency's analysis no less than to that pertaining to local enforcement policies. We conclude that substantial evidence supports the BIA's finding that Ji Wen Shi had not convincingly demonstrated a reasonable possibility of forced sterilization based on national enforcement policies. First, to the extent the Aird affidavits indicated that Chinese nationals who had violated their country's family planning regulations abroad could expect to face the same punishments on removal as their countrymen whose violations had occurred in China, the BIA acted within its discretion in declining to infer therefrom a reasonable possibility that Ji Wen Shi faced forced sterilization. As the BIA noted, nothing in the affidavits or their supporting attachments referenced any occurrences of forced sterilization. See In re J-W-S-, 24 I. & N. Dec. at 189-90. [24] We cannot conclude that a contrary finding was compelled in light of our own determination that the Aird Affidavits are inadequate to establish the existence of an official policy of forced sterilization ... and thus insufficient to show that the applicants were likely to face forced sterilization if returned to China. Jin Xiu Chen v. U.S. Dep't of Justice, 468 F.3d 109, 110 (2d Cir.2006); see Wei Guang Wang v. BIA, 437 F.3d 270, 274-76 (2d Cir.2006). Second, as in J-H-S-, the BIA acknowledged that the 2006 Country Report indicated that enforcement policies sometimes left women with little practical choice but to undergo abortion or sterilization. In re J-W-S-, 24 I. & N. Dec. at 190. Here again, however, the BIA reasonably relied on the context of the statements to find that the dilemma was being ascribed to a system of economic rewards and moderate economic penalties that did not necessarily amount to physical or mental coercion.  [25] Id. (emphasis in original). While Ji Wen Shi disputes this assessment of the evidence, he does so only through conclusory arguments, pointing to no reliable, specific, and objective evidence that would have compelled the BIA to infer from the quoted language in the 2006 Country Report that there was a reasonable possibility that petitioner would be forcedphysically or otherwiseto submit to sterilization on removal to China. See Ramsameachire v. Ashcroft, 357 F.3d at 178; accord Yi Long Yang v. Gonzales, 478 F.3d at 140-41. In fact, for reasons already detailed in discussing a related argument by Jian Hui Shao, we conclude that substantial evidence supports the BIA's contrary finding. See supra at 158-62. Third, the BIA further supported its factual findings by reference to a State Department report indicating that American diplomats in China were unaware of `any cases in which returnees from the United States were forced to undergo sterilization procedures on their return.' In re J-W-S-, 24 I. & N. Dec. at 191 (quoting 2005 Profile at 28). [26] The significance of the report is highlighted by the fact that, despite the voluminous documentary records developed in these three cases, none of the petitioners points us to evidence of any person being forcibly sterilized on removal to China based on having two children. In sum, because substantial evidence supports the BIA's finding that no national enforcement policy gives rise to a reasonable possibility that Ji Wen Shi would be forcibly sterilized on removal to China, we cannot conclude that the BIA was compelled to find a well-founded fear of such persecution.