ICE Deports Christian Who Fled Persecution Back to Indonesia

Man who sought asylum in New Jersey church caught up in 100-day surge in non-criminal arrests.
Four years ago, eight Indonesian Christians living in a New Jersey church received some encouraging news: despite overstaying their visas for more than a decade, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would not be deporting them.
This year, ICE changed its mind.
Four of the men attended an annual check-in meeting with ICE officials in Newark in March, and authorities asked them to return with their passports in May. But when the men returned last week, this time joined by a lawyer, they were arrested and sent to an immigration detention center.
Yesterday, one was deported back to Indonesia.
"His attorney got a call at 10 a.m. that his stay of removal was denied,” stated Seth Kaper-Dale, Arino Massie’s pastor.
Almost two hours later, Kaper-Dale heard from Massie. “Arino called to say, ‘Pastor, I’m already on the plane. I’m headed for Japan. Thanks for all the efforts of the community. Tell the community I love them. Tell my son I love him,’” Kaper-Dale told about three dozen people gathered for a rally Thursday.
Massie and the three other men, who are still being held, are part of a 40-percent surge in ICE arrests in the first 100 days of the Trump administration. This includes 100 arrests a day of undocumented immigrants with no criminal record.
The same day the Indonesian men were arrested, the first Christian governor of Jakarta was jailed for blasphemy, just weeks after losing a gubernatorial reelection bid. The world’s most populous Muslim country was visited last month by Vice President Mike Pence, who praised its “tradition of modern Islam.”
But Indonesia’s reputation as a moderate country is not as accurate as it once was. CT reported in …Continue reading…