Opinion ID: 811876
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Religious Persecution Claim

Text: Wu also asserts the BIA erred in affirming the IJ’s decision that Wu “completely fabricated” his religious persecution claim. Pet’r Br. at 26 (internal quotation marks omitted). He does not, however, present any argument in support of any claimed error by the BIA. Instead, he begins by providing the procedural history of the claim, and, in doing so, suggests that in his first appeal to the BIA in 2006, it is unclear whether the BIA adopted the IJ’s findings regarding the religious persecution claim: the BIA “simply stated the IJ conducted a thorough review” of the religious persecution claim “but never stated whether it adopted the interpretation and remanded the case because of the lack of information regarding the forced sterilization.” Id. at 25. But that is the extent of Wu’s attempted argument. Wu’s brief falls short of asserting, for example, that the BIA did not adequately review his religious persecution claim in his first appeal. We will not craft Wu’s arguments for him and, thus, there is no reasoned argument for us to review concerning any error in the BIA’s 2006 review of the religious persecution claim. See Perry v. Woodward, 199 F.3d 1126, 1141 n.13 (10th Cir. 1999) (“This court . . . will not craft a party’s arguments for him.”). - 19 - The remainder of Wu’s argument regarding his claim of religious persecution claim is not persuasive. Outside of reciting facts related to his baptism and attempting to explain the inconsistencies between his asylum application and testimony, he presents no argument for review. Wu observes that the IJ “seemed to focus on [Wu’s] forgetting to write about his baptism on his written application” and explains that he “may have overlooked writing it down.” Pet’r Br. at 26. But he does not claim, for example, that the IJ’s adverse credibility finding, which was based, in part, on the lack of corroboration regarding Wu’s baptism, was unsupported or legally insufficient.4 Regarding the IJ’s concern about the discrepancy in Wu’s statement in his asylum application that public security officials “tore the place down” and his testimony that officials broke into his home and destroyed objects, he explains that he “may have miss [sic] written the phrase ‘tore the place down.’” Id. Again, he does not argue that the IJ’s adverse credibility finding was unsupported. Given the lack of claimed error and our obligation to review the IJ’s adverse credibility finding under a substantial evidence standard, we are not compelled to reverse. 4 While Wu’s Reply Brief makes a semblance of an argument that failure to include information in an asylum application does not render testimony regarding the omitted information incredible, he does not raise this argument in his Opening Brief and, thus, we are not required to address it. See Stump v. Gates, 211 F.3d 527, 533 (10th Cir. 2000) (noting issues raised for the first time in a reply brief generally are not reviewed). Nevertheless, omissions in an asylum application may form the basis of an adverse credibility determination. See Ismaiel, 516 F.3d at 1205-06. We find that the IJ’s adverse credibility determination is reasonable. - 20 -