A group of Christian Indonesians, threatened by deportation from the United States have received a much-needed reprieve last week after a judge ruled federal authority over their case. The 51 Indonesians have said they feared persecution for their religious beliefs if they returned home.
Boston District Court Judge Patti Saris rejected a government argument that immigration officials, not the federal court, have jurisdiction over their deportation.
Judge Saris initially put the Indonesians' deportation on hold until a ruling on who should take up their case is reached. In the court ruling, she stated additional protection for the Indonesians.
"The government is hereby temporarily enjoined from removing all Petitioners named in the SAC until the Court rules on the motion for preliminary injunction or until further order of the Court," the ruling said.
The group's lawyer, Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Rights Project, said the judge's decision "reaffirms the central role of the federal courts in ensuring that there is a fair process when someone's life may be at stake."
"The court soundly rejected the government's position that the federal courts lack authority to ensure that individuals have an opportunity to present their case before an immigration judge before they're removed," Gelernt added.
The Indonesians fled to the seacoast communities in New Hampshire following a big riot in their home country in 1998 that killed about 1,000 people. Now, they have regular jobs and have raised their own families in the U.S. state. In 2009, Democratic U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen made a deal with the immigrants that they could stay in New Hampshire as long as they reported regularly to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.
However, with the change in administration, the Immigration office notified the Indonesians to start preparing their plane tickets back to their hometown. A generally Muslim country, the Christian group fear that the recent spike in extremist activities will once again endanger their lives in Indonesia.
In a statement, Shaheen lauded the judge's decision, saying that New Hampshire should continue to be a safe refuge for the Indonesian community.
