Nuo Veseli v. Eric Holder, Jr.
Filing
Per Curiam OPINION filed : The petition for review is DENIED, decision not for publication. David W. McKeague and Helene N. White, Circuit Judges; Jack Zouhary, U.S. District Judge.
Case: 09-4475 Document: 006110963005 Filed: 05/20/2011 Page: 1
NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION
File Name: 11a0339n.06
FILED
No. 09-4475
May 20, 2011
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT
NUO VESELI,
Petitioner,
v.
ERIC HOLDER, JR., Attorney General,
Respondent.
BEFORE:
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LEONARD GREEN, Clerk
ON PETITION FOR
REVIEW OF FINAL ORDER
FROM THE BOARD OF
IMMIGRATION APPEALS
OPINION
McKEAGUE and WHITE, Circuit Judges; ZOUHARY, District Judge.*
PER CURIAM. Petitioner Nuo Veseli is a native and citizen of the former Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia and what is now Kosovo. He is an ethnic Albanian who left Kosovo in 1990 while
it was under Serbian rule. He seeks asylum, withholding of removal and protection under the
Convention Against Torture, claiming he was mistreated by Serbian police on two occasions. First,
Veseli claims that after a May 1989 protest, he was detained by police for three to five hours, during
which time he was beaten, interrogated, and his feet placed in cold water. Second, Veseli claims that
in June 1989, he was again detained by police and interrogated for some seven hours, but was not
physically abused. Veseli did not disclose these alleged abuses either in his asylum application or
during a 1997 hearing before an immigration judge (“IJ”), and it was not until the Board of
*
The Honorable Jack Zouhary, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Ohio,
sitting by designation.
Case: 09-4475 Document: 006110963005 Filed: 05/20/2011 Page: 2
Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) remanded Veseli’s case for a second merits hearing in 2008 that he
disclosed these two detentions.
In this appeal, Veseli challenges two determinations made by the IJ, which were affirmed by
the BIA: (1) Veseli was not credible because of omissions and inconsistencies in his testimony and
his asylum application; and (2) even assuming Veseli was credible, he failed to demonstrate he
suffered past persecution or a well-founded fear of future persecution. Because we find the
resolution of the credibility determination dispositive, we decline to address the second challenge.
The new standards adopted by the REAL ID Act for credibility determinations do not apply
here because Veseli filed his asylum application prior to May 11, 2005. See Yacoub v. Holder, 337
F. App’x 511, 514 (6th Cir. 2009). Credibility determinations are considered findings of fact, and
are reviewed under the substantial evidence standard. Yu v. Ashcroft, 364 F.3d 700, 703 (6th Cir.
2004). An “immigration judge’s conclusion must be supported by specific reasons and must be
based upon issues that go to the heart of the applicant’s claim. In other words, [i]f discrepancies
cannot be viewed as attempts by the applicant to enhance his claims of persecution, they have no
bearing on credibility.” Chen v. Gonzales, 447 F.3d 468, 472 (6th Cir. 2006) (citations and quotation
marks omitted). We cannot reverse such findings simply because we would have decided them
differently. Gishta v. Gonzales, 404 F.3d 972, 978 (6th Cir. 2005). Rather, “[t]hese findings ‘are
conclusive unless any reasonable adjudicator would be compelled to conclude to the contrary.’” Id.
(quoting 8 U.S.C. § 1252(b)(4)(B)).
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Case: 09-4475 Document: 006110963005 Filed: 05/20/2011 Page: 3
The IJ and BIA, in finding Veseli not credible, specifically relied upon Veseli’s belated
disclosure of alleged police mistreatment. In fact, during the 1997 hearing, Veseli was asked about
his general encounters with police and he specifically testified that he was not detained, arrested or
beaten in 1989. Further, Veseli failed to include these incidents in his amended asylum application,
even though he was given two opportunities to do so.
When asked by the IJ why these incidents were not included in his asylum application or
disclosed to the previous IJ during the 1997 hearing, Veseli offered several unsatisfactory
explanations, including that he was “never asked” about the incidents, he believed the written
statement submitted with his application provided only general information and expected the IJ to
ask him about more specific details at the hearing, and he did not want to stray from his written
statement out of fear the IJ would not believe his testimony. The IJ, however, could not inquire into
incidents about which he had no knowledge. These explanations do not compel a finding that Veseli
was credible. Adding claims of mistreatment by Serbian police officers can properly be viewed as
a misguided attempt to enhance his claim for asylum. The IJ and BIA did not err in concluding that
these inconsistencies made Veseli not credible. See Ramaj v. Gonzales, 466 F.3d 520, 528 (6th Cir.
2006).
The Petition for Review is DENIED.
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