Even as many in Indonesia and around the world are condemning yesterday’s guilty verdict against Basuki Tjahaja Purnama as an example of a minority Christian being persecuted for his religion, authorities in the United States are preparing to deport a group of Christian Indonesians who had come to the USA seeking asylum from persecution around two decades prior.
The four men – Oldy Manopo, Arino Massie, Saul Timisela, Rovani Wangko – had come to America in the late 1990s to flee the chaos and violence engulfing Indonesia at the time. They managed to stay in the US, got work and started families. Thanks in large part to the advocacy of their church’s pastor, Seth Kaper-Dale, they were granted probationary visas and then, in 2013, temporary stays.
But on Monday, US Immigration agents detained the four men in New Jersey, acting on new harsher rules set out by the administration of President Donald Trump, with the intention of deporting them from the country they had lived in for around 20 years.
https://www.facebook.com/seth.kaperdale/posts/1417071975020512
The four men had left Indonesia for the US in the late 1990s, a time when the downfall of Suharto’s regime, combined with a devastating economic crisis and a rise in Islamic hardliner groups, left many Christians, especially Chinese-Indonesian Christians, fearing for their lives due to numerous attacks on their communities and houses of worship. The most shocking of those was a string of bombings at churches across Indonesia on Christmas Eve 2000. Bombs went off in 11 cities which left 19 people dead (it would have been more if not for the sacrifice of one brave young Muslim man guarding one of the churches).
Although there are no official numbers, it is estimated that hundreds of Christian Indonesians fled to the US between 1996 and 2003. US immigration allowed a large number of Indonesians into the country on tourist visas after the chaos caused by the fall of Suharto, many of whom overstayed and settled in the US.
The lax policy obviously tightened up considerably after 9/11, after which the US government required all men from “Muslim countries” to register if they had entered the country on temporary visas, regardless of their religion.
The four Indonesian men registered themselves under the Bush-era law, which put them in the US government database of resident aliens. They tried to register for asylum but were rejected as they were told they only had one year to apply after entering the country.
Despite lacking permanent residency status, the four continued living in New Jersey, finding work at factories and warehouses. They were almost caught in a 2006 immigration raid on a group of Indonesian Christians in which some others were deported. In 2009, Kaper-Dale struck a deal with the Obama administration allowing them and eight others to say in the US on a form of probation called “order of supervision.”
But in 2012, deportations were resumed and the four were targeted yet again. This time, they were granted sanctuary by their church and remained within its walls for 11 months as their story got national media coverage and activists worked to secure their stay in the US.
In 2013, Kaper-Dale made the argument that the men should be allowed to stay, in part, because of the contributions they had made to their communities. For example, another targeted Christian Indonesian, Harry Pangemanan, had helped rebuild 200 homes after a devastating hurricane hit the region.
Immigration officials finally acquiesced and gave the men temporary stay status which would allow them to remain in the US as long as they didn’t commit any crimes and checked in with immigration agents every year.
So in 2013, they emerged from the church and continued living their lives, checking in with immigration once every year.
But during their last check in with immigration officers in New Jersey, the men were told to return and were taken into custody for eventual deportation.
They had not committed any crimes in the intervening years and no changes to their temporary stay status had been announced. The only thing that changed is the new administration of President Trump, who won based in part on his hardline stance on immigration. On January 25, he signed a sweeping executive order calling for the deportation of nearly all illegal immigrants, regardless of circumstance or special status.
“Four wonderful people from our community — two of whom we prayed for yesterday when we sent them out from church — are now in detention,” Kaper-Dale said as quoted by WNYC.org.
https://www.facebook.com/seth.kaperdale/posts/1417712211623155
US congressional representative Frank Pallone said the men were “collateral damage” of the Trump administration’s “inflexible, extreme and discriminatory” policies and called for their release.
Deeply saddened by detainment of Indonesian refugees in #HighlandPark.They have already experienced significant trauma over the last 20 yrs. pic.twitter.com/d2FgPRlqDA
— Rep. Frank Pallone (@FrankPallone) May 9, 2017
“Oldy Manopo, Arino Massie, Saul Timisela, Rovani Wangko and their families have already experienced significant trauma as refugees over the last 20 years,” he said in the statement.
A spokesman for US Immigration confirmed the men were in custody pending a hearing with a federal judge but would not provide any more details about the arrest. The move is in line with other recent immigration crackdowns across the US.
The four men’s deportations will likely cause serious strife for their families. Arino Massie is the father of a U.S. citizen, Saul Timisela is supporting his disabled Indonesian wife, Rovani Wangko is married to a green card holder and Oldy Manopo is the father of a child allowed to stay under the US’s “Dreamer” program.
Many members of their local community have spoken out and protested against the deportations.
https://www.facebook.com/ReformedChurchOfHighlandPark/posts/1298726766830253
Lawyers for the four men will appeal the deportation, but if they are forced to leave the US and return to Indonesia, they will be coming back to the country just when it seems that the persecution of minorities has just been given the official greenlight.
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