Jiazeng Zhao v. Loretta E. Lynch , 623 F. App'x 331 ( 2015 )

FILED
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
NOV 20 2015
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
JIAZENG ZHAO, No. 13-70795
Petitioner, Agency No. A099-725-672
v.
MEMORANDUM*
LORETTA E. LYNCH, Attorney General,
Respondent.
On Petition for Review of an Order of the
Board of Immigration Appeals
Argued and Submitted November 5, 2015
Pasadena, California
Before: GRABER and GOULD, Circuit Judges, and DANIEL,** Senior District
Judge.
Jiazeng Zhao petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’s
order denying him asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the
Convention Against Torture. We deny the petition.
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
**
The Honorable Wiley Y. Daniel, Senior District Judge for the U.S.
District Court for Colorado, sitting by designation.
1. At oral argument, counsel conceded that the petition may be denied as to
Zhao’s alleged resistance to China’s one-child policy.
2. While Zhao alleges that the police beat him because of his political
opinion regarding the government’s complicity in an unfair eviction scheme, “the
record does not compel us to hold that [Zhao] was attacked on account of” a
statutorily protected ground. Regalado-Escobar v. Holder, 717 F.3d 724, 730 (9th
Cir. 2013). Zhao’s argument is plausible, but it is also plausible that the
government punished Zhao for overstaying or squatting in a residence from which
he had been evicted after receiving compensation. Our standard of review is
stringent, and Zhao is entitled to relief only if the record compels the conclusion
that his version of the facts is correct. On this record, we defer to the agency’s
decision because the record doesn’t compel us to credit Zhao’s argument.
Petition DENIED.
2