Kumar

MEMORANDUM **

We have before us two consolidated petitions for review. In No. 05-72084, Mahendra Kumar, a native and citizen of Fiji, petitions for review of the affirmance by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) of the denial by an Immigration Judge (IJ) of his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), and the derivative applications of his wife and two children. In No. 07-70265, Kumar petitions for review of the BIA’s denial of his motion to reopen, which included his wife and his daughter. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 , and we deny the consolidated petitions.

I. Petition No. 05-72084

To gain asylum Kumar must show he is unable or unwilling to return to Fiji because of persecution or a well-founded fear of future persecution on account of a protected ground, in this case his political opinion. See Smolniakova v. Gonzales, 422 F.3d 1037, 1048 (9th Cir.2005). We review the IJ’s opinion because the BIA affirmed without opinion, applying a substantial evidence standard under which “credibility findings will be upheld unless the evidence compels a contrary result.” Don v. Gonzales, 476 F.3d 738, 741 (9th…