Despite vocal support from faith leaders and members of the Metuchen, New Jersey, community, Arino Massie was deported by ICE last week after living in the U.S. for 16 years. Massie, a Chinese Christian, fled Indonesia nearly two decades ago to escape religious persecution. Arino had been undocumented since overstaying his tourist visa (despite Trump’s claims, “research shows that the majority of people in the country without permission are those who overstayed their visas rather than walking across a border”), and missed the deadline to apply for asylum.
In the time since then Arino married, had a son, and as part of an agreement his church was able to strike with ICE, had instructions to check in annually with the agency. But despite the fact that Arino followed ICE’s instructions by checking in, he was taken into custody earlier this year. By last week, he was gone. A group of other Indonesian men fighting deportation orders could also face similar fates:
The Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale, who has fought for the men to be allowed to stay in the U.S., was headed to a rally outside Elizabeth Detention Center, where they were being held, when he learned that a request for a “stay or removal” for Massie had been denied. Then, at 11:45 a.m., he heard from Massie.
“An hour later from the airport, 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 recounted to the crowd of about three dozen people at the rally Thursday.
Arino’s son Joel didn’t attend the rally because he was at school. Arino’s wife told the boy later that night that his dad had been deported. “Arino has a child who needs him to bring home food every night and pay for his health care,” one church elder commented. “What’s going to happen to the children when we take the breadwinners away?”
Arino has become one of the more than 41,000 undocumented immigrants to have been swept up by Trump’s deportation force since inauguration day, and one of the thousands to have been torn from their homes and families despite the fact that they have no criminal record. Following Trump’s January executive orders setting his mass deportation force into action, just about any immigrant here without permission is at risk of deportation, with the regime expanding the definition of “criminal” to include even folks with just minor traffic infractions on their record. Immigrant rights advocates have been asking DHS and DHS Sec. John Kelly for data about who is getting deported and why, but so far the agency has refused to hand over the information:
That’s a misuse of resources, according to Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale, of the Reformed Church of Highland Park.
“There’s no reason to send him away right now; he’s absolutely not a criminal. These are family people who happen to have final deportation orders,” Kaper-Dale told the Associated Press. “Our folks got caught up in that new dragnet.”
As Trump met with Pope Francis this week and as recently as this month promised to protect Christians, members of Arino’s community now worry about his safety following his return to Indonesia after nearly two decades, where just earlier this month a court “found the Christian governor of the country’s capital, Jakarta, guilty of blasphemy against Islam” and sentenced him to prison for two years “in a case widely seen as a test of religious tolerance and free speech,” according to the New York Times. “Can you imagine someone applying for asylum and then going back to Indonesia? “ asked one community member. “How are they going to treat him?”