Liwei Zhou v. U.S. Attorney General


USCA11 Case: 21-14497 Document: 24-1 Date Filed: 01/19/2023 Page: 1 of 10 [DO NOT PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 21-14497 Non-Argument Calendar ____________________ LIWEI ZHOU, Petitioner, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ____________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals Agency No. A205-778-915 ____________________ USCA11 Case: 21-14497 Document: 24-1 Date Filed: 01/19/2023 Page: 2 of 10 2 Opinion of the Court 21-14497 Before ROSENBAUM, GRANT, and TJOFLAT, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Liwei Zhou seeks review of the Board of Immigration Ap- peals’s (“BIA”) final order affirming the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of his application for asylum based on an adverse credibility finding. He argues that both the BIA and IJ failed to apply the “to- tality of the circumstances” test in assessing the credibility of his testimony, and that substantial evidence did not support the ad- verse credibility finding. I. Zhou, a native and citizen of China, was admitted to the United States on a B-2 visa in October 2012. In February 2017, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) served Zhou with a Notice to Appear (“NTA”), charging him as removable under INA § 237(a)(1)(B), 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(1)(B), for remaining in the United States beyond the expiration of his visa, which occurred in April 2013. Zhou conceded the allegations in the NTA, including his re- movability, and then filed an application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”) based on persecution related to his opposition to China’s family planning policies. 1 1 Zhou does not appeal the denial of CAT relief, so we do not further address this aspect of his application for asylum. Issues not raised in a party’s initial USCA11 Case: 21-14497 Document: 24-1 Date Filed: 01/19/2023 Page: 3 of 10 21-14497 Opinion of the Court 3 In his written statement, Zhou stated that his wife became pregnant with their second child in August 1992. Four months into her pregnancy, Chinese officials notified her that she would be re- quired to have an abortion, so they escaped to keep the child. While he and his wife were in hiding, officials tore the roof off their house and tortured and interrogated Zhou’s mother to determine the couple’s whereabouts. He and his wife returned to their home following the birth of their second child, and officials informed Zhou’s wife that she would be forced to undergo a sterilization pro- cedure, but Zhou insisted that she refuse. Officials subsequently visited Zhou’s home again, and when he objected to his wife being taken to the hospital to undergo the sterilization procedure, police officers pushed him to the ground and beat him with their fists. After forcing his wife to have a sterilization procedure, offi- cials imposed a fine on Zhou for having a second child. Because he could not pay it, they detained him at the police station and beat him with belts and batons. Although his “wife’s health was very poor[,] …

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