On Wednesday, a US judge ordered the release of an undocumented immigrant arrested with 46 other Indonesians in New Hampshire. This was in spite of a deportation order from the Trump administration. A 2010 deal arranged with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enabled Terry Rombot to remain in the US until President Donald Trump told ICE this year that all undocumented immigrants could be deported.
Rombot only learned of the change in immigration policy in August, when arrested visiting ICE for what he believed to be a routine check-in. Chief US District Judge, Patti Saris, ordered Rombot’s immediate release, allowing him to walk from the Boston courthouse without even changing out of his prison clothes.
Lawyers for Rombot say that he was taken into custody despite a 2015 letter from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, promising that if targeted for deportation, he would be given the chance to get ready and to have an ‘orderly’ exit from the US. The judge cited the letter on Wednesday as proof that ICE had violated Rombot’s due process rights.
The US Attorney’s Office is considering an appeal, according to a spokeswoman. ICE claims that the arrangement was only ever intended to be temporary and that the agency claims discretion in such matters. The 2000 Indonesian Christians living near the city of Dover, in the seacoast region of New Hampshire, fear that they would face violence and persecution if deported back to the biggest Muslim-majority country in the world.