Javid

MEMORANDUM **

Vahid Hakimi Javid, a native and citizen of Iran, petitions for review of his final order of removal. The Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirmed the decision of an Immigration Judge (“IJ”) denying asylum and withholding of removal because Javid had not demonstrated past persecution or a fear of future persecution on a protected ground. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 , and we deny the petition for review.

Because the BIA affirmed without an opinion, we review the IJ’s opinion as if it were the BIA’s, upholding the denial of asylum if “supported by reasonable, substantial, and probative evidence on the record considered as a whole.” Khup v. Ashcroft, 376 F.3d 898, 902 (9th Cir.2004) (quotations omitted).

Javid filed two asylum applications with radically different facts. His first application claimed that he himself had been involved in activities against the Iranian government, while his second application claimed that he had no involvement and had been of interest to the authorities only because of his cousin’s political activities. At his hearing he disavowed his first application as the work of an immigration consultant who filed fraudulent…