Tsikoliia

MEMORANDUM ***

Zourab Tsikoliia and his family petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) summary affirmance without opinion pursuant to 8 C.F.R. § 3.1 (a)(7) 1 of their appeal from an Immi *952 gration Judge’s (IJ) denial of their applications for asylum and withholding of removal. Mr. Tsikoliia, the lead Petitioner, is a native and citizen of the Republic of Georgia. The claims of Mr. Tsikoliia’s wife and son are derivative of his application. 2 Because the BIA did not perform an independent review, we review the IJ’s decision. See Gui v. INS, 280 F.3d 1217, 1225 (9th Cir.2002).

The IJ denied the applications based on an adverse credibility determination. We must affirm that decision unless the record compels a finding that the applicant was credible. See 8 U.S.C. § 1252 (b)(4)(B); Malhi v. INS, 336 F.3d 989, 993 (9th Cir.2003). See also INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 481 , 112 S.Ct. 812 , 117 L.Ed.2d 38 (1992). The IJ’s adverse credibility determination in this case, however, is supported by a substantial discrepancy in Mr. Tsikoliia’s testimony. Although Mr. Tsikoliia claimed he was persecuted in part because of his religion, he asserted at…