Sultanova

MEMORANDUM *

Umugali Sultanova (“Sultanova”) 1 , native and citizen of Russia, petitions for *371 review of the Board of Appeals’ (“BIA”) decision affirming the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of her application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We grant the petition for review in part, deny in part, and remand to the BIA for further proceedings..

Because Sultanova does not challenge the IJ’s discretionary denial of her asylum petition in her opening brief, she has waived that issue. See Balser v. Dep’t of Justice, 327 F.3d 903, 911 (9th Cir.2003) (“Issues not raised in the opening brief usually are deemed waived.”) (internal quotations and citation omitted); Martinez-Serrano v. INS, 94 F.3d 1256, 1259 (9th Cir.1996) (same). We deny the petition for review on her asylum claim.

The IJ denied withholding of removal and relief under CAT because he found that Sultanova was not credible, and because, in the absence of credible testimony, she did not demonstrate that it was more likely than not that she would be persecuted or tortured if returned to Russia. We review adverse…