Dovganyuk

MEMORANDUM

Ruslan Dovganyuk and his wife Oksana Shved, natives of the Soviet Union and citizens of Ukraine, seek review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) decision that adopted the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of their applications for asylum, withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). The decision was grounded upon an adverse credibility finding.

The adverse credibility finding was supported by substantial evidence. Following a lengthy recess of the petitioner’s hearing, he attempted to buttress his claim of political persecution by asserting that he had written poems criticizing the government for a political newspaper. The newspaper communications were not, however, mentioned in his original affidavit accompanying his request for asylum, nor were they mentioned in a second affidavit filed sometime later. This inconsistency is sufficient to support the IJ’s adverse credibility finding. See Li v. Ashcroft, 378 F.3d 959, 964 (9th Cir.2004).

Petitioner asks us to consider psychological evidence explaining his memory loss and contends it constitutes evidence to explain his confusion. We can assume that the petitioner’s…