The Biden Administration is in court fighting for the power to deport about two dozen Christian Indonesians in Central Jersey who were protected by the Obama Administration and then targeted for removal under President Trump.
The Indonesians, who have lived in the United States for decades and fear religious-based persecution in their home country, could be arrested, detained, and removed from the country if a federal judge rules in the coming days in favor of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s efforts to lift a hold on the deportations.
Attorneys representing ICE are arguing that U.S. District Judge Esther Salas doesn’t have the jurisdiction to continue the temporary stop to the deportations that she imposed in 2018. But the Indonesians and their attorneys are perplexed as to why Biden’s Justice Department is continuing a Trump Administration fight, especially since the acting director of ICE has said it is not seeking to deport undocumented immigrants who don’t have criminal records.
“All my hopes and prayers were with the changing of the administrations, that things with immigration would be more relaxed, and easy,” said Harry Pangemanan, a leader in the New Jersey Christian Indonesian community, which has been in ICE’s crosshairs since 2009. “I don’t see anything changing yet.”
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On Palm Sunday last month, suicide bombers exploded themselves outside a church in Pangemanan’s hometown in Sulawasi, injuring at least 20. The bombing was believed to be part of a wave of anti-Christian attacks by ISIS-linked militants in Indonesia.
Like the other Indonesians in his community, Pangemanan, who arrived in the United States nearly 30 years ago, wants the federal government to grant him asylum. He was arrested by ICE in 2009 for overstaying his visa and later lived in sanctuary at the Reformed Church of Highland Park in Central Jersey in order to avoid deportation. His pastor, Seth Kaper-Dale, ultimately hammered out an agreement with the Obama Administration that allowed Pangemanan and the other Indonesians to live and work in the U.S. as long as they weren’t charged with crimes and checked in annually with ICE.
When Trump took office in 2017, that agreement was tossed out. In January 2018, ten days after Pangemanan was recognized with a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award for leading a team of volunteers that rebuilt 200 homes on the Jersey Shore, he was nearly arrested by ICE while preparing to take his child to school. At about the same time, ICE arrested two other Indonesian fathers after they dropped their children off at school. Four men were ultimately deported.
Following the arrests, the ACLU of New Jersey filed a federal class-action lawsuit, and in February 2018 won a temporary restraining order to halt the deportations, which remains in effect, in order to give the Indonesians time to file motions for new petitions for asylum. Since then, 29 petitions have been filed, but due to the overburdened immigration court system only seven are being considered for asylum so far.
The Biden Administration is now trying to have the temporary restraining order lifted, saying the federal judge doesn’t have legal standing to stop deportations while the immigrants seek to have their asylum cases reopened.
“Although the Trump administration’s extreme anti-immigrant agenda may be behind us, we must ensure that the Biden administration ends the injustices that remain,” said ACLU New Jersey’s executive director, Amol Sinha. “Members of this community face persecution and a risk of death if deported to Indonesia, and we ask the federal government to safeguard their well-being as our laws, our Constitution, and our values demand."
The case of these asylum seekers is being closely watched because it’s a test of whether ICE is actually moderating its hawkish approach to immigration enforcement, as President Biden has promised. This week, Senators Cory Booker and Robert Menendez, along with several fellow Democratic members of the New Jersey congressional delegation, sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas urging the agency to neither detain nor deport the Indonesians.
“For nearly 30 years, these Christian refugees have raised families, bought homes, attended church services, and volunteered countless hours to aid neighbors,” they wrote. “These New Jerseyans exemplify the best qualities of our state. Their ability to continue living and working safely in New Jersey is critical to the well-being of their U.S. citizen children and to the benefit of their church communities and neighbors they serve.”
There are an estimated 2,000 Christian Indonesians in Middlesex County, many of whom fled religious persecution and then overstayed their visas. They established Christian congregations and built families with U.S. citizen children.
An ICE official said in a statement that the agency’s arrests beyond those conducted at jails or prisons must be approved by ICE’s acting director in Washington DC. But, the statement said: “While ICE will focus its civil immigration enforcement on the priorities of national security, border security and public safety, DHS does not prohibit ICE from apprehending or detaining individuals who are unlawfully in the United States and fall outside of these specific priorities.”
