Taty Lieana Tearsa Sael, Orville Wright Manariangkuba v. John Ashcroft, Attorney General

Taty Lieana Tearsa Sael (“Sael”) and her husband, Orville Wright Manariangku-ba (“Manariangkuba”), seek asylum from Indonesia. Immigration Judge (“IJ”) Miriam Hayward granted relief, but the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) reversed. We grant the petition for review because Sael, the lead petitioner, has established a well-founded fear of future persecution on account of her Chinese ethnicity. Sael has demonstrated that Indonesians of Chinese descent are a disfavored group and that she is particularly at risk, based on past threats and acts of violence against her.

I.

Indonesia’s ethnic Chinese minority makes up only three percent of the country’s population, AR 223, and has been a frequent target of violence throughout its history. Evidence in the record documents anti-Chinese violence dating back to the period of Dutch colonial rule, when ethnic Chinese were segregated from Indonesia’s indigenous population. AR 695, 753. Ethnic violence continued after independence, as the Chinese minority came under suspicion for disloyalty as a communist “fifth column.” AR 531. More recently, anti-Chinese violence has been fueled by resentment of the Chinese minority’s economic power and…