Meriyu v. Barr, No. 19-1892 (7th Cir. 2020)
Annotate this CaseMeriyu, now 49 years old, is an Indonesian citizen who is of Chinese descent and of the Buddhist faith. She came to the U.S. in 2000 on a nonimmigrant visa. Meriyu claims she was prompted to leave by her mistreatment, based on her religion and ethnicity, and by violence in Indonesia. In 2002, charged with removability under 8 U.S.C. 1227(a)(1)(B), Meriyu sought relief from removal based on fear of persecution on account of race and religion. She was ordered removed after she failed to appear at a hearing; 14 years later, she moved to reopen the proceedings. Meriyu is married and has a 12-year-old child. She claims she did not appear because she had sustained injuries to her ankle and foot. The BIA upheld an IJ’s ruling that the motion was untimely and that she could not show a material change in country conditions since the hearing. Her two subsequent motions to reopen were also denied. The Seventh Circuit denied a petition for review. When compared to the 2003 conditions described in the State Department reports, current conditions in Indonesia do not reflect any “new threshold” of human rights abuses. Meriyu’s evidence did not suggest any prospect of persecution if she returned to Indonesia.
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