Ang, et al v. Holder

Filing

OPINION issued by Juan R. Torruella, Appellate Judge; Rogeriee Thompson, Appellate Judge and David J. Barron, Appellate Judge. Unpublished. [14-1719]

Case: 14-1719

Document: 00116877748

Page: 1

Date Filed: 08/19/2015

Entry ID: 5931148

Not for Publication in West's Federal Reporter

United States Court of Appeals
For the First Circuit
No. 14-1719
SUNARTO ANG and TUTI ERLINA,
Petitioners,
v.
LORETTA E. LYNCH,
Attorney General of the United States,*
Respondent.

PETITION FOR REVIEW OF AN ORDER OF
THE BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS

Before
Torruella, Thompson, and Barron,
Circuit Judges.

Jack Herzig on brief for petitioner.
Robert Michael Stalzer, Trial Attorney, Office of Immigration
Litigation, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice, Joyce R.
Branda, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, U.S.
Department of Justice, and Stephen J. Flynn, Assistant Director,
Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, U.S. Department
of Justice, on brief for respondent.

August 19, 2015

*

Pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 43(c)(2),
Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch has been substituted for former
Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., as the respondent.

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BARRON, Circuit Judge.

Date Filed: 08/19/2015

Entry ID: 5931148

Petitioners Sunarto Ang and Tuti

Erlina, a married couple, are Indonesian citizens who seek to
reopen their unsuccessful application for asylum.

Because we

conclude that the Board of Immigration Appeals did not err in
refusing to do so, we deny their petition for review of the Board's
decision.
I.
The petitioners entered the United States on temporary
visas

in

March

of

2007,

stayed

past

those

visas'

dates

expiration, and applied for asylum in December of 2007.
petitioners,

who

are

Christian,

claimed

they

would

of
The

face

"persecution . . . on account of . . . religion" if they were
removed to Indonesia.

8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42)(A).

An Immigration

Judge denied the petitioners' asylum application in August of 2010.
The Board of Immigration Appeals then affirmed, and this Court
denied the petitioners' petition for review on the merits in mid2013.

Ang v. Holder, 723 F.3d 6 (1st Cir. 2013).
Nearly

eight

months

later,

the

petitioners

filed

a

motion to reopen their asylum application with the Board of
Immigration Appeals.

See 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c)(1).

Such motions

are generally disfavored because they disrupt "compelling public
interests

in

proceedings."

finality

and

the

expeditious

processing

of

Guerrero-Santana v. Gonzales, 499 F.3d 90, 92 (1st

Cir. 2007) (quoting Raza v. Gonzales, 484 F.3d 125, 127 (1st Cir.
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Case: 14-1719

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2007)).

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Date Filed: 08/19/2015

Entry ID: 5931148

Thus, such motions must provide evidence material to the

asylum claim that was not available at the time of the asylum
hearing.

8 U.S.C. § 1229a(c)(7)(C)(ii); 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c)(1).
The

however,

petitioners'

because

they

motion

filed

it

is

especially

late.

See

disfavored,
8

U.S.C.

§ 1229a(c)(7)(C)(i); 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c)(2) (motions to reopen
must generally be filed within 90 days of the final administrative
decision in the initial proceeding).
must clear an additional hurdle.

As a result, the petitioners

They must show that their motion

is based on "changed country conditions arising in [their] country
of nationality or the country to which removal has been ordered."
8 U.S.C. § 1229a(c)(7)(C)(ii); 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c)(3)(ii).
II.
The Board may properly deny a late motion to reopen if
the petitioner's evidence of purportedly "changed conditions"
shows only a "mere continuation" of prior conditions, Marsadu v.
Holder, 748 F.3d 55, 58 (1st Cir. 2014), or what we have elsewhere
described as a "persistence of negative conditions," Fen Tjong Lie
v. Holder, 729 F.3d 28, 31 (1st Cir. 2013).

Thus, a petitioner,

to succeed in an untimely motion to reopen based on changed
conditions, must show an "intensification or deterioration" of
conditions in the relevant country.

Marsadu, 748 F.3d at 58; see

also Fen Tjong Lie, 729 F.3d at 30-31.

We review the Board's

finding that the petitioners made no such showing here for abuse
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of discretion, and so we may reverse only if the Board's decision
was "arbitrary, capricious, or irrational."

Raza, 484 F.3d at

127.
In

this

case,

the

Board's

conclusion

that

the

petitioners failed to make the required showing was reasonable.
The petitioners did offer evidence that attacks on Christians and
churches in Indonesia have continued in the years following their
2010 asylum hearing.

And the petitioners also offered evidence

that local governments in Indonesia have, since 2010, refused to
issue permits that churches need to legally operate and then shut
down those churches for lacking such permits.

But the discussion

of Indonesia in the United States Department of State's 2009 Report
on International Religious Freedom -- which is part of the record
from the petitioners' original, 2010 hearing -- reveals that
similar conditions were present in Indonesia at the time of the
2010

hearing.

The

Board

thus

supportably

concluded

that

petitioners' newly offered evidence showed conditions that are
"substantially similar" to those that prevailed in Indonesia at
the time of the petitioners' original asylum hearing. See Sugiarto
v. Holder, 761 F.3d 102, 104 (1st Cir. 2014) (upholding the Board's
finding of no changed conditions where the petitioner's evidence
showed new attacks on Christians that were substantially similar
to attacks that had occurred before the petitioner's original
asylum hearing).
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Case: 14-1719

Document: 00116877748

The
supplied

Board

two

news

'increasing

theater

did

Page: 5

recognize

articles
of

Date Filed: 08/19/2015

that

the

petitioners

"describ[ing],

violence

and

abuse

Entry ID: 5931148

in

passing,

against

also
an

religious

minorities' and a 'rise in the number of attacks or intolerance
against

minorities,

including

Christians.'"

(Alterations

omitted.) But the articles provide no details about how conditions
for Christians in Indonesia have worsened.

We thus agree with the

Board that these articles are "generalized and conclusory in
nature."

For that reason, the articles do not show that the Board

abused its discretion in finding that the petitioners failed to
make the necessary showing of changed country conditions.

See

Haizem Liu v. Holder, 727 F.3d 53, 56 n.5 (1st Cir. 2013) (holding
that

a

letter's

"lack

of

detail

and

conclusory

assertions"

"provide[d] insight into its likely veracity and reliability" as
support for a claim of changed country conditions).

And although

the Board did not mention specifically several other news articles
that the petitioners submitted that contain similar statements,
those statements likewise lacked details of worsening conditions.
We thus defer to the Board's finding that the petitioners have not
shown a material change in country conditions.

See Sugiarto, 761

F.3d at 103-04; Haizem Liu, 727 F.3d at 56-57 & n.5.
We therefore deny the petition for review.

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