 |
GROUNDSWELL
Indonesians and Indonesian Americans in New Hampshire support the Christian refugees efforts to stay in the U.S. |
U.S. District Judge Esther Salas ordered the temporary halt while she reviews a class-action lawsuit filed Friday (Feb. 2) that seeks to give Indonesian Christians another shot at applying for political asylum status.
“We’re really really happy about the ruling today because it shows that people need a chance. They need to have a fair chance to make fair claims for protection,” said ACLU attorney Farrin Anello to USA Today.
The ruling means four Indonesian immigrants who sought sanctuary at the Reformed Church of Highland Park — Harry Pangemanan, Yohanes Tasik, Arthur Jemmy and Silfia Tobing — can leave the church without risking deportation.
“Praise God,” said Pangemanan, a married father of two. “I feel so much relief and for my daughters. There’s still so much to do, but I just praise God for what we have now.”
The New Jersey ruling came a day after U.S. District Judge Patti Saris said 50 Indonesian refugees living in New Hampshire must be given time to reopen their immigration cases and argue that if they would be perseuted if they return to Muslim-dominated Indonesia.
"This opinion may literally save lives," said Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the Indonesians of New Hampshire. "As the court recognized ... this country's laws do not permit the government to send people back to persecution or torture," said Gelernt, of the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Rights Project.
U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-NH, called the judge's order a significant development. "Many of these families fled religious persecution in Indonesia, and it is wrong that the Trump administration has been prioritizing them for deportation," she said in a statement.
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu hailed the decision as good for the Dover Indonesian community. "The Federal Court in Boston continues to agree and reaffirm that these cases deserve re-examination," Sununu said in a statement. "I will continue to advocate for a resolution that protects these individuals from religious persecution and allows them to remain in the United States."
A number of Indonesian Christians came to the United States on tourist visas in the 1990s and early 2000s, escaping religious persecution from Muslim extremists in their home country. Recently, in Indonesia, there has been an uptick in violence against Christians resulting in church burnings and arrests of Christian leaders.
Many of the Indonesians went to live in New Jersey and New Hampshire, where they found jobs and raised families. Under the Obama administration, they were allowed to stay as long as they regularly reported to the ICE officials.
In recent months, with the hardline position taken by the Trump administration towards refugees, as the Indonesians complied with the reporting requirement, they were told to buy one-way tickets back to Indonesia and prepare to be deported.
In the New Hampshire case, Judge Saris said the Indonesians have 90 days after they receive paperwork of their prior immigration proceedings to file a motion reopen their case. Her order blocks the government from deporting the Indonesians until after the Board of Immigration Appeals rules on their cases and they have a chance to seek a stay in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"A brief delay in unlawful deportation of residents who have lived here with government permission for over a decade outweighs the public interest in prompt execution of removal orders, where petitioners have been law-abiding and pose no threat to public safety," Saris said in her opinion.
"A brief delay in unlawful deportation of residents who have lived here with government permission for over a decade outweighs the public interest in prompt execution of removal orders, where petitioners have been law-abiding and pose no threat to public safety," Saris said in her opinion.
_______________________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment