Peter v. Gonzales

183 F. App'x 805
Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit·Decided June 13, 2006·No. Nos. 04-9607, 05-9534·Published

Opinion

ORDER AND JUDGMENT**

MICHAEL R. MURPHY, Circuit Judge.

In these consolidated appeals, No. 04-9607 is petitioners’ petition for review of the order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) summarily dismissing then-appeal of the Immigration Judge’s (IJ) decision that denied their requests for asylum and restriction on removal1 under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and the Convention Against Torture (CAT). No. 05-9534 is petitioners’ petition for review of the BIA’s decision denying their motion to reopen on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel. We dismiss the petition in No. 04-9607 for lack of jurisdiction and deny the petition in No. 05-9534.

Background

Petitioner Berlian Siagian, a native and citizen of Indonesia, entered the United States in August 1992, as a non-immigrant visitor. In January 1995, her husband, petitioner Chrison Peter, and their children, petitioners Victor Mulatua and Octaviani Fnu, also natives and citizens of Indonesia, joined her as non-immigrant visitors.

In August 2003, nearly ten years after he arrived in this country, Mr. Peter filed an application for asylum and restriction on removal with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which listed his wife and children as derivative beneficiaries. As grounds, he alleged persecution as a Christian in a predominantly Muslim country. The USCIS denied his application for asylum and charged petitioners with removability as aliens who remained in this country beyond the period authorized by their visas, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(1)(B).

In January 2004, petitioners appeared with their first lawyer before the IJ in Denver, Colorado. They conceded removability and Mr. Peter renewed his application for asylum as grounds for relief from removal.

The Merits Hearing

Petitioners’ merits hearing took place on June 8, 2004. At the outset, their first lawyer moved for a continuance because he [808] claimed that his office mistakenly calendared the matter as a removal hearing, not an asylum hearing. Athough he realized the mistake the day before the hearing, he argued that he needed “some time to prepare the individuals to testify, to generate some supporting documents and to ... prepare the case for presentation.” R., No. 05-9534, at 315. The IJ denied the motion, stating:

[W]e’ll proceed with the case today and at the end of the hearing, if it appears that it has to be reset for more testimony or evidence, I’ll consider it, and if I think the case is ready, then I’ll give a decision then. And if you feel that you’re not able to present the case, you can withdraw from the case if you want, although since it’s an individual case, I have to have the [petitioners] speak for themselves today.

Id. at 315-16. The lawyer chose not to withdraw and the hearing went forward.

The Evidence

Mr. Peter, who was then forty-seven years old, testified through an interpreter that he is a member of the Batak ethnic group in Indonesia, which is predominantly Christian. He was born into the Church of Seventh Day Adventists, and his wife and their children are also members of that church. At the time of the hearing his wife was forty-eight years old, their son was twenty-years old, and their daughter was nineteen-years old. Mr. Peter grew up in the city of Pontianak, and returned there after attending college in the city of Bantung. According to Mr. Peter, Pontianak is approximately sixty percent Muslim and forty percent Christian, and North Sumatra, where his father resides, is approximately fifty percent Muslim and fifty percent Christian.

Because Mr. Peter attended private Christian schools in Indonesia, he did not allege any incidents of persecution at school. However, he testified that as an adult, he, his wife, and their children were pinched, shoved, and insulted while going to and from church. He also testified that he did not sing as loudly as he wanted to during church services because, if the singing got too loud, the neighboring Muslims “would call their kids to throw rocks at the church.” Id. at 335. According to him, the members of the church wanted to move the facility, but the government would not give them a building permit.

Mr. Peter also testified about an incident that took place in October 1984, more than ten years before he left Indonesia. Athough he had graduated from college with a management degree, he testified that his employment opportunities were limited because of his religious affiliation, which was noted on his identification card. As such, he was forced to take a day-job selling health-related books, and got a second job working nights as a chauffeur. One day he visited a government office on a sales call where he “met with the commander” at “the marines office” and explained the materials he was selling. Id. at 323. When the commander discovered some “verses from the Bible in those books,” the commander objected and caused Mr. Peter to be detained for one day, during which he was forced to stand in a corner, and was insulted and beaten. Id. He claimed that after the office “copied all the information about me,” he was told “if you dare to tell anybody about what ... happened, we will find you and we will kill you.” Id. at 324.

At the conclusion of Mr. Peter’s testimony, the IJ asked him: “If you were required to leave the country, do you have sufficient funds to pay the airline tickets for your family members and yourself?” Id. at 342. Mr. Peter responded, “I don’t have enough money for that.” Id.

[809] The IJ’s Decision

The IJ found that Mr. Peter was not eligible for asylum because he did not file his application within one year of his arrival in the United States, and he did not show any changed or extraordinary circumstances to justify the late filing. The IJ also denied his application for restriction on removal under the INA and CAT because “he has not shown that it is more likely than not that he would suffer persecution in the future, I find he was not persecuted in the past, and the acts which he complains of were so long ago as to not be considered a threat in the future.” Id. at 304. And because Mr. Peter testified that he did not have enough money to purchase airline tickets for his family to leave the country, the IJ found that they were not eligible for voluntary departure and ordered them detained and removed to Indonesia.

Following the IJ’s ruling, petitioners’ first lawyer reserved their right to appeal and asked the IJ to consider voluntary departure: “I think if Mr. Peter’s given even ten days, he would be able to raise the money for the tickets back home.” Id. at 343. The IJ said:

Well, I’ve already given my decision and [Mr. Peter] does have the option, if he is able to do that, to provide some actual evidence to the Court that he and his family are able to leave voluntarily. Since he stated he does not have sufficient funds, that’s my decision until there’s evidence to show the contrary.

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Peter v. Gonzales, 183 F. App'x 805 (10th Cir. 2006).

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