Bagi pemohon asylum khususnya di Circuit IX sudah lama menanti keputusan Federal "Lolong."  Silahkan sebarluaskan informasi karena banyak kawan2 kita yang bergantung dengan keputusan ini.

http://www.mercuryn ews.com/breaking news/ci_5838755

Court rejects San Jose woman's bid for asylum
Nine-year resident fears persecution if returned to
Indonesia

By Howard Mintz
Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched:05/ 07/2007 01:52:46 PM PDT

A San Jose woman's nine-year quest for asylum suffered
a potentially fatal blow today when a federal appeals
court rejected her argument that she deserves safe
haven in the United States because she'll be
persecuted as a Chinese Catholic if returned to
Indonesia.

In a 22-page ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals found that Marjorie Lolong had not established
a legal basis for asylum, despite expressing sympathy
for her concerns she'll be persecuted in the world's
largest Muslim nation because of her ethnicity and
because she's a woman.

An expanded 15-judge panel of the appeals court issued
an 11-4 ruling against Lolong, whose lawyers in 2004
persuaded a three-judge 9th Circuit panel to side with
her asylum arguments. That 2004 ruling expanded the
concept of asylum for a member of a "disfavored
group," prompting the Bush administration to ask the
court to reconsider because of concerns the decision
could "open the floodgates" to asylum seekers.

Today's ruling did not address the broader asylum
right found in the earlier decision, essentially
wiping it off the books. But for the 37-year-old
Lolong, the ruling raises the prospect of being forced
to leave the United States, where she's worked and
gone to school since the mid-1990s.

Lolong could not be immediately reached for comment.
Robert Jobe, her attorney, also could not be reached.
But Lolong's only legal option now is to ask the U.S.
Supreme Court to review her case.

Lolong described her plight last year in an interview
with the Mercury News, saying she decided to petition
for asylum in 1998 after an outbreak of the worst
anti-Chinese rioting in Indonesia's history. More than
a thousand ethnic Chinese were killed while homes,
churches and businesses were looted and burned.
Chinese women were raped, including a friend of
Lolong's.

After four years in the United States, she sought
asylum when her family warned her of the troubles back
in Indonesia, where the ethnic violence has subsided
in recent years under a new government.
In the interview, Lolong expressed little worry about
losing in the 9th Circuit, saying "It's already a
winning case for me."

Since she first sought asylum, Lolong's fortunes have
seesawed in the immigration and federal courts, which
have produced a series of conflicting conclusions
about her status.

An immigration judge originally ruled in Lolong's
favor, concluding she had a well-founded fear of
persecution and should remain in the United States.
But the Board of Immigration Appeals, the top branch
of the immigration courts, overruled that decision,
prompting Lolong's appeal to the 9th Circuit.

In today's ruling, 9th Circuit Judge Jay Bybee,
writing for the majority, said that Lolong has
provided "no evidence" she personally would be
targeted for persecution if returned to Indonesia. The
majority decision did, however, express sympathy for
Chinese-Christians who worry about retribution because
of Indonesia's violent past.

"Lolong has not shown the Indonesian government is
unable or unwilling to control the perpetrators of
this violence," wrote Bybee, a former top Justice
department official in the Bush administration.
Judge Sidney Thomas, joined by three other judges,
dissented, saying the BIA decision was wrong. A
Mercury News examination two years ago found that many
of the agency's immigration decisions are overturned
in the federal courts because of flawed, perfunctory
reviews in asylum and deportation cases.

"The BIA did not address the pivotal point of Lolong's
claim - that the Indonesian government, for all its
good intentions, is unable to control anti-Chinese and
anti-Christian elements," the dissent said.