Susanto v. Gonzales, 439 F.3d 57, 1st Cir. (2006)

439 F.
3d 57
Inge SUSANTO, Petitioner,

v.
Alberto GONZALES, Attorney General of the United States,
Respondent.
No. 04-2683.
United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Submitted December 6, 2005.
Decided March 9, 2006.
Wei Jia, and Law Office of Wei Jia, on brief, for petitioner.
Michael J. Sullivan, United States Attorney, and Jennifer C. Boal,
Assistant United States Attorney, on brief, for respondent.
Before BOUDIN, Chief Judge, CYR, Senior Circuit Judge, and LYNCH,
Circuit Judge.
CYR, Senior Circuit Judge.
Inge Susanto and her husband Yudi Supriady are natives and citizens of
Indonesia, where they belonged to two minority groups: ethnic Chinese and
Christian.1 In 2002, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) charged
petitioners with removability, which they acknowledge. Petitioners applied for
asylum, however, asserting that they suffered persecution in Indonesia on
account of their ethnicity and religion.
At their hearing before an immigration judge (IJ), petitioners adduced as

evidence of persecution, inter alia, the violent riots by Indonesia's Muslim
majority in 1998 against the Chinese minority, which resulted in many deaths,
rapes, and serious injuries, and which prompted Susanto and her mother to wear
face veils in public, so as to disguise their ethnicity, and Susanto's family to
relocate from Jakarta to another part of the country for two months; the
vandalization of the family home during their two-month absence from the
capital, and the discovery upon their return that one of their Chinese neighbor's
daughters had been raped; an incident in 1998 during which two men
confronted Susanto (then age 14) outside her school, called her a "Chinese
snob," and tried (but failed) to grope her; an incident during which Susanto and
her mother were mugged at knifepoint on a city bus, and the mugger stated:
"You Chinese, you die"; the discovery of an undetonated bomb at Susanto's
church, and a subsequent bombing of the same church; and incidents in 1999
during which Muslim crowds threatened and threw stones at Susanto and her
fellow worshipers.
3
The IJ denied petitioners' asylum application, for failure to establish past

persecution or a well-founded fear of future persecution in the event they were
repatriated to Indonesia. See 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(42)(A); 8 C.F.R. 208.13(b).
Specifically, the IJ found that the alleged past incidents were not severe enough
to constitute persecution, and that the prospect of future persecution was
"small." On appeal, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) affirmed without
separate opinion, and petitioners now appeal. See Olujoke v. Gonzales, 411
F.3d 16, 21 (1st Cir.2005) (noting that, on appeal from BIA's summary
affirmance, court of appeals directly reviews IJ decision).
We review the IJ decision only to determine whether its findings of fact that
petitioners did not suffer from cognizable past "persecution" and did not
confront a well-founded fear of future persecution are supported by "substantial
evidence" in the administrative record. See Silva v. Ashcroft, 394 F.3d 1, 4 (1st
Cir.2005).
Petitioners first assert that the IJ's decision is unsupported because it fails to
take into account the very serious incidents of ethnicity and religion-based
persecution described by Susanto. Petitioners must bear the burden of proof as
to their eligibility for asylum, see INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 421, 423,
107 S.Ct. 1207, 94 L.Ed.2d 434 (1987), and we repeatedly have observed that
harassment of the quality and degree experienced by petitioners simply does not
compel a finding of persecution. See, e.g., Nelson v. INS, 232 F.3d 258, 263-64
(1st Cir.2002) (affirming IJ finding of no persecution even where petitioner was
placed in solitary confinement and physically abused); see also Bocova v.
Gonzales, 412 F.3d 257, 263-64 (1st Cir.2005) (same, two police beatings
during a two-year period). The baseline rule is that past persecution requires
"more than mere discomfiture, unpleasantness, harassment, or unfair
treatment." Nikijuluw v. Gonzales, 427 F.3d 115, 120 (1st Cir.2005). Although
the harassment experienced by these petitioners certainly was ugly,
discriminatory, and regrettable, they experienced no physical confinement and
no serious physical injuries resulted.
Next, petitioners contend that the IJ erred in determining that they failed to
establish a well-founded fear of future persecution because the IJ

inappropriately confined his inquiry to whether the petitioners would be
murdered or raped if they were to return, and required that petitioners prove
more than a 10% risk of such future persecution.2 The latter argument advanced
by petitioners is premised on INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 421, 107 S.Ct.
1207, 94 L.Ed.2d 434 (1987), where the Supreme Court noted that even as little
as a 10% risk of occurrence might support a well-founded fear of future
persecution. Id. at 431, 107 S.Ct. 1207. They contend that, contrary to the IJ's
interpretation of Cardoza-Fonseca, the Court did not suggest that the courts
should utilize this 10% figure as an artificial benchmark. These arguments are
unpersuasive as well.
The context of the IJ's decision makes it clear that he did not mean to suggest
that murder and rape were the only cognizable forms of future persecution.
Rather, in juxtaposition to the alleged incidents of past persecution in this case,
the IJ mentioned murder and rape simply as examples of the types of harm
severe enough to constitute cognizable forms of future persecution. The IJ did
not imply that only murder and rape rise to the requisite level of persecution.
Likewise, the IJ's reference to Cardoza-Fonseca and the 10% formulation, read
in context, does not provide a basis for reversal. While Susanto is correct that
she is not required to show that her likelihood of suffering persecution is, as a
mathematical matter, at least 10%, we do not take the IJ's use of this
formulation to require such a showing. The IJ's mention of the formulation
followed his statistical observation that Indonesia has "millions" of ethnic
Chinese, whereas the casualties of the 1998 riots were in the "thousands" or
"tens of thousands." In this context, it is clear that the IJ simply intended to
point out that the prospect of past and future persecution against these
petitioners had been and would remain a "small one," viz., considerably less
than the 10% risk considered sufficient in Cardoza-Fonseca. The IJ never
attempted to quantify the precise level of this "small" risk, nor does CardozaFonseca require such precision. See Aguilar-Solis v. INS, 168 F.3d 565, 572
(1st Cir.1999) (citing Cardoza-Fonseca for its general holding that requisite
risk is "somewhat less than the classic `more likely than not' formulation," and
noting that "[b]eyond a tentative suggestion that a `reasonable probability' of
persecution may capture the essence of the legal standard, the Court has not
been markedly more precise").
These two challenged findings were supported by "substantial evidence" in the

administrative record. The State Department Reports adduced by the
government assert that the worst of the 1998 anti-Chinese violence occurred in
the eastern parts of Indonesia (whereas Susanto lived in Jakarta, in the central
region of the country), and that Indonesia, in response to intense international

condemnation of the 1998 anti-Chinese riots, has taken serious remedial
measures to reduce the risks of any recurrence. Indeed, Susanto herself testified
that security officers are now posted at her church. Thus, it was entirely
rational for the IJ to conclude that there presently exists but a small chance that
petitioners would suffer serious harm were they to return to Indonesia.
Moreover, the IJ reasonably concluded that, were petitioners threatened with
such harm, they reasonably might relocate to a safer part of Indonesia, such as
the areas with a Christian majority. Indeed, Susanto herself testified that the
family fled to her uncle's house in just such a safer region during the 1998 riots.
See El Moraghy v. Ashcroft, 331 F.3d 195, 199 (1st Cir.2003) (noting that
evidence of viable relocation option may undercut well-founded fear of future
persecution); see also 8 C.F.R. 208.13(b)(1)(i)(B).
10
Finally, petitioners now argue, for the first time, that the IJ erred because he
assessed the seriousness of the 1998 incidents experienced by Susanto as if she
had been an adult, whereas a 14-year-old child may perceive an experience as
persecutory, where an adult would not. She cites various guidelines for
assessing the asylum claims of children. We do not address this issue, however,
as these arguments were never raised before the BIA, thus are deemed waived
on appeal, for failure to exhaust administrative remedies. See Opere v. INS, 267
F.3d 10, 14 (1st Cir.2001).
11
The petition for review is DENIED.
Notes:
1
Susanto is designated as the lead respondent in the case, since Supriady simply
claims as a derivative spousal beneficiary of the asylum application submitted
by SusantoSee 8 U.S.C. 1158(b)(3).
As petitioners failed to establish past persecution, no rebuttable presumption of

future persecution was triggered, and petitioners bore the burden to prove a
well-founded fear of future persecutionSee 8 C.F.R. 208.13(b)(1).

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439 F.

Inge SUSANTO, Petitioner,

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

At their hearing before an immigration judge (IJ), petitioners adduced as

The IJ denied petitioners' asylum application, for failure to establish past

establish a well-founded fear of future persecution because the IJ

These two challenged findings were supported by "substantial evidence" in the

region of the country), and that Indonesia, in response to intense international

The petition for review is DENIED.

As petitioners failed to establish past persecution, no rebuttable presumption of

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