Roberto Julian Galicia v. Loretta E. Lynch

MEMORANDUM

1. Galicia petitions for review of the BIA’s denial of his applications for asylum, withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). We deny Galicia’s petition because the agency’s adverse credibility finding was supported by substantial evidence. See Shrestha v. Holder, 590 F.3d 1034, 1039 (9th Cir. 2010).

Galicia failed to mention in his applications a “dramatic, pivotal event,” Alvarez-Santos v. I.N.S., 332 F.3d 1245, 1254 (9th Cir. 2003), that allegedly precipitated his flight from Guatemala. During his removal proceedings in 2012, Galicia, for the first time, testified that he fled Guatemala after witnessing guerrillas kill his father before his very eyes. But in the declarations filed with his asylum applications, Galicia had stated that his father was kidnapped five days after he left Guatemala. See Pal v. I.N.S., 204 F.3d 935, 938 (9th Cir. 2000) (holding that major inconsistencies between petitioner’s testimony and application support adverse credibility finding). This omission is not trivial and cannot be explained by “the normal limits of human understanding and memory.” Shrestha, 590 F.3d at 1044 . Based on this omission,…