NJ Dads Arrested By ICE After School-Drop Off Out Of Detention

METUCHEN, NJ — After nearly ten months in detention following a controversial ICE arrest, Roby Sanger of Metuchen and Gunawan Liem of Franklin Park have been released on bail.

An Immigration Customs Enforcement official confirmed to Patch that the men, both ethnic Chinese Christians and Indonesian nationals, were released Thursday night. “ICE released Gunawan Liem and Roby Sanger, both Indonesian nationals illegally present in the U.S., from custody after they posted bond granted to them by an immigration judge," ICE ERO Newark told Patch Friday morning.

The news was welcomed in Sanger's hometown of Metuchen, with the mayor announcing his release. "Roby has been held in an Essex County detention facility since January but will be home with his family and friends for the holiday season and our community is excited to welcome him back," Busch said, thanking members of the community that came together to support Sanger.

A New Jersey judge halted the deportation of Sanger and Liem in early February after ACLU-NJ sued on their behalf. That order did not guarantee their release from detention, however, and they spent another nine months in an Elizabeth jail waiting for the government to release them. Both could still eventually be deported.

Sanger and Liem were arrested after dropping their children off at school in January. Their arrests caused an outrage with local and state officials, who said neither men had missed an ICE-check in and criticized the timing of the arrests.

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal, Gov. Phil Murphy and Rep. Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat, all blasted their arrests, with Grewal saying the timing of them created a "chilling effect" for other parents.

Local officials, including immigration reform advocate Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale of the Reform Church of Highland Park and Metuchen mayor Busch also spoke out against the arrests.

"He was taken without notice, without any notice of our police department...obviously the family was given no notice," Busch said at a press conference that afternoon, according to an APP reporter. "This is a man who has two kids in our school district... at this moment as we speak, his daughters don't even know that he's been detained."

Schools are considered a "sensitive location" by ICE officials, and they generally avoid making arrests there. Other sensitive locations include places of worship, medical offices and public demonstrations. Both men were arrested after dropping their children off, either at school or at a school bus sop. A third man, Harry Pangamanan, avoided arrest when he saw ICE approach his home that day.

All three men are part of a group of Indonesian Christians living in the Highland Park-Metuchen area. Many say they fled Indonesia, a Muslim-majority country, due to religious persecution. Churches have been burned in Indonesia and a pastor was decapitated in 2004. Approximately 80 undocumented Indonesian Christians live in New Jersey.

In May 2017, four Indonesian Christian men were deported from Central Jersey. In that case, all four men entered the country in the 1990s and overstayed tourist visas. The men applied for asylum, but their applications were rejected because they missed the deadline; asylum-seekers must apply within one year of arriving on U.S. soil.

Read More:

• Metuchen Dad Arrested By ICE After School Drop-Off, Advocates Say
• NJ Fights ICE Arrests: 2 Dads Busted After School Drop-Offs
• Metuchen Rally For Roby Sanger, Dad Detained By ICE (Videos)
• Judge Halts Deportation Of 2 NJ Dads
• Indonesian Immigrants Leave Highland Park Church Sanctuary

Image via Tom Davis, taken at a rally in support of Sanger