Indonesian Immigrants Leave Highland Park Church Sanctuary

HIGHLAND PARK, NJ — Following a judge's ruling to halt deportations of Indonesian nationals without legal status in Middlesex County, several people who sought sanctuary in a Highland Park church began to return to their New Jersey homes.

Harry Pangemanan left the Reformed Church of Highland Park on Sunday, the APP reported. Yohanes Tasik planned to leave Monday, and a couple from Edison, Silfia Tobing and Arthur Jemmy, were hoping to be home on Tuesday.

The ruling puts them in limbo: a judge has blocked deportations, but nothing prevents them from being arrested and detained by ICE.

"ICE could choose to detain everybody in this class, put them in Elizabeth Detention Center," Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale said. "That would be really dumb."

A federal district judge blocked deportations on Friday after the ACLU-NJ sued on behalf of Roby Sanger of Metuchen and Gunawan Liem of Highland Park. The two men, both Indonesian Christians, were detained without warning on Jan. 25 after dropping their children off at school. The men had never missed an ICE check-in.

• Read more: Metuchen Dad Arrested By ICE After School Drop-Off, Advocates Say

Sanger and Liem remain in detention in Elizabeth, something the Democratic Activists of Metuchen hopes changes soon.

"In view of today's decision, we hope that the government releases Roby Sanger and others impacted by this decision to their families as soon as possible," the group said on Friday. "This was a critical first step in this process and we will continue to need you support as we work to release our friends and neighbors. The power of our collective voice in this case has been unprecedented and a key component in this important victory – thank you to all of you in speaking out on this issue."

A day before the ruling, a federal judge in a similar ACLU case in Massachusetts ordered the government to halt the removal of Indonesian Christians. The judge ruled that they needed more time to file and receive decisions on motions to re-open their immigration cases because of increasingly perilous conditions for Christians in Indonesia.

• Read More: Judge Halts Deportation Of 2 NJ Dads
• Read More: NJ Fights ICE Arrests: 2 Dads Busted After School Drop-Offs

In a statement, the ACLU-NJ said the deportation of these "longtime" community members "violates due process and deprives them of the opportunity to argue their case for asylum."

"U.S. law prohibits removal of people who would likely face persecution or torture, a risk that courts have ruled Christians, especially of Chinese descent, would encounter in Indonesia.

"These community members, our neighbors, are entitled to argue their case with the protections of due process, especially when the stakes are life-and-death," said ACLU-NJ Executive Director Amol Sinha. "We stand with Harry, Mariyana, Roby, Gunawan, and hundreds of other community members like them, as do the communities they have contributed to for decades. They deserve to have notice before being exiled to a country where their lives will be at risk, and they deserve the opportunity to challenge that decision."

ICE previously told Patch the arrests were not based on ethnicity or nationality.

"All enforcement actions are a part of routine, daily targeted operations conducted by ICE around the country targeting criminal aliens and other immigration violators who are in the U.S. in violation of federal law. ICE does not target individuals based on religion, ethnicity, gender or race. Any suggestion to the contrary is patently false," Emilio Dabul, a public affairs officer for ICE said.

There are approximately 80 undocumented Indonesian Christians living in New Jersey. Many say they fled Indonesia, a Muslim-majority country, due to religious persecution. Churches have been burned in Indonesia and a pastor was decapitated in 2004.

In May 2017, four Indonesian Christian men were deported from Central Jersey. In that case, all four men entered the country in the 1990s and overstayed tourist visas. The men applied for asylum, but their applications were rejected because they missed the deadline; asylum-seekers must apply within one year of arriving on U.S. soil.

With reporting by Tom Davis, Patch Staff

NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 29: Dozens of immigration activists, clergy members and others participate in a protest against the imprisonment and potential deportation of immigration activist Ravi Ragbir in front of the Federal Building on January 29, 2018 in New York City. A federal judge ordered immigration activist Ravi Ragbir be released from custody on Monday, granting him a temporary reprieve from deportation to his native Trinidad and Tobago. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images,)