Court Opinion

ID: 9871200
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-26 20:20:20.437658+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:46:14.128524
License: Public Domain

Pregerson, J.,
dissenting:.
I dissent. This case is another example of the cruelty that besets our immigration laws.
Daniel Ribowo came to the United States in 2000. For over sixteen years, he has worked to build his life here. He married his wife, Idapola, in California in 2002. Together, they have three United States citizen children: Michael (age 13), Maureen (age 10), and Meredith (age 8). These children were born in' the U.S. and have bright futures. The family is active in their Seventh Day Adventist Church: Daniel serves as the Deputy Director of the Pathfinders, where he mentors children at his church; Idapola teaches the bible study class for children under the age of five. They fear returning to Indonesia where *730Christians are a recognized disfavored group. Tampubolon v. Holder, 610 F.3d 1056, 1058 (9th Cir. 2010). In Indonesia, Christians are “ ‘subject to violence and official discrimination,’ and the [Indonesian] government has largely acquiesced in their persecution by those following ‘militant expressions of Islam.’” Salim v. Lynch, 831 F.3d 1133, 1140 (9th Cir. 2016) (quoting Tampubolon, 601 F.3d at 1060).
Despite the equities in this case, the government has declined to exercise prose-cutorial discretion and has chosen to prosecute Ribowo. In doing so, the government has effectively chosen to prosecute the whole family. Ribowo’s children will either grow up in America without their father or be compelled by circumstances beyond their control to move to a country that they do not know and where they will be in danger because they are Christians. I decline to be a party to such an unkind result.