United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 21-2085 ROBERTO CABRERA-RUIZ, Petitioner, v. MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General of the United States, Respondent. ____________________

Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. No. A028-801-596 ____________________

ARGUED JANUARY 7, 2022 — DECIDED JUNE 14, 2022 ____________________

Before EASTERBROOK, ST. EVE, and KIRSCH, Circuit Judges. ST. EVE, Circuit Judge. Roberto Cabrera-Ruiz, a Mexican na- tional, has a long history of entries into the United States, de- portations after convictions for crimes of varying severity, and subsequent reentries beginning the cycle anew. In 2018, Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) agents arrested Cabrera-Ruiz for a suspected drug trafficking offense. 2 No. 21-2085 Cabrera-Ruiz pleaded guilty to illegal reentry instead and re- ceived a time-served sentence. He now faces deportation. Cabrera-Ruiz applied for deferral of removal pursuant to the Convention Against Torture. The immigration judge (“IJ”) denied Cabrera-Ruiz relief, relying heavily on an adverse credibility determination. The Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) dismissed Cabrera-Ruiz’s appeal. Because substantial evidence supports the IJ’s and the BIA’s decisions, we deny Cabrera-Ruiz’s petition for review. I. Background Cabrera-Ruiz most recently reentered the United States in 2015 after spending seven years in Mexico following a 2008 deportation. On December 3, 2018, DEA agents arrested Cabrera-Ruiz in Chicago, Illinois, with eight kilograms of co- caine. Over the next two years, Cabrera-Ruiz made four in- consistent statements regarding the drugs, his experiences with Mexican cartels, and fear of return. Cabrera-Ruiz spoke with DEA agents shortly after his ar- rest. He told the DEA agents he received the drugs through a man named “Claudio” from Michoacán, Mexico. Cabrera- Ruiz claimed he met Claudio in Mexico three or four months prior. There, Claudio asked Cabrera-Ruiz to traffic cocaine. The two used a nameless middleman. The next day, Cabrera-Ruiz interviewed with an Immigra- tion and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) agent. He told the ICE agent he got the cocaine from someone he used to work with in Ohio. Cabrera-Ruiz believed the man was linked to the La Familia Michoacana drug cartel but did not know which car- tel was running the current operation. Cabrera-Ruiz also ex- plained his prior experience with organized crime. At a young No. 21-2085 3 age while living in California, Cabrera-Ruiz joined the Sureños 13 gang and received gang tattoos. After his 2008 de- portation to Mexico, Cabrera-Ruiz worked as a driver for La Familia Michoacana. Starting in 2009, he drove for a different cartel, the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (“CJNG”). Cabrera-Ruiz claimed he drove contraband in semi-trucks but never knew what he was hauling. The ICE agent then asked Cabrera-Ruiz if he feared persecution or torture if removed from the United States: Do you have any fear of persecution or torture should you be removed from the United States? Maybe you think because of like political reasons, or maybe reli- gious reasons you’re going to be persecuted or tor- tured. If you do have such a fear, then you would go through what’s called the asylum process. While you’re in custody here, you would see an Asylum Of- ficer and you can explain why you fear persecution or torture based on, you know, like a group of certain cat- egories. Like I said, some of them are religious reas