Singh

MEMORANDUM ****

Balraj Singh, a native and citizen of India, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) order adopting and affirming Immigration Judge Wendell A. Hollis’s (“IJ”) denial of his application for asylum, restriction on removal to India, protection under Article III of the United Nations Convention Against Torture (“CAT”), and explicit finding that Mr. Singh’s testimony in support of his asylum application was not credible. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We deny the petition.

I

Mr. Singh submitted an application for asylum on March 29, 2002, claiming that he suffered past persecution in India on account of his race, religion, membership in a particular social group, and political opinion. He was ordered into removal proceedings on August 2, 2002, and testified in front of the IJ on March 28, 2003. The IJ determined that Mr. Singh was not credible and, therefore, denied his application.

The IJ based his decision on a variety of credibility concerns, but the dispositive ground for the adverse credibility finding was the discrepancies in Mr. Singh’s explanations surrounding his passport photograph. In his passport photograph, Mr.…