Thread: NJ-Church rallies , member is sent to immigration detention

Church rallies as member is sent to immigration detention center
Highland Park church rallies as member is moved to West Coast facility for deportation
By RICK MALWITZ • GANNETT NEW JERSEY • April 1, 2009

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HIGHLAND PARK — Members of The Reformed Church of the Highland Park gathered here last night before departing for an evening communion service at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Elizabeth, 12 hours after one of their members was suddenly sent to a detention center on the other side of the continent.



Harry Pangemanan, who came to the United States from Indonesia in 1993 with a tourist visa that expired long ago, called the Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale at 6 a.m. Tuesday from the detention center in Elizabeth saying he was on his way to Newark Liberty International Airport and was being deported.

Kaper-Dale immediately drove to the airport and, while wearing his clerical collar, was able to talk his way onto a Continental Airlines commercial plane. There, he said, he was able to pray with Pangemanan minutes before the flight departed.

The pastor learned then that Pangemanan was not yet being deported, but was being sent to a detention facility in Tacoma, Wash., a distance that would make it improbable that members of the congregation could visit. Members have gone to Elizabeth five times a week since Jan. 12, when ICE officials took Pangemanan away in handcuffs.

Two ICE agents — one male and one female — came to the couple's home in Avenel, preparing to take Harry and his wife Yana to detention. Learning the couple had two young children, the agents allowed Yana, who came from Indonesia in 1998, to live at home while she awaited a deportation hearing.

Because the children — Jocelyn, 6, and Christania, 2 — were born in the United States, they are American citizens, according to the 14th amendment to the Constitution.

They can remain here legally, and be placed in the foster care system. Or the children could return with their parents to Indonesia, where, said Kaper-Dale, "Their American citizenship would be used against them."

In an alert published in December, the U.S. State Department said of Indonesia, "American citizens are urged to exercise caution, maintain a low profile, to stay current with media coverage of local events, and to be aware of their surroundings."


When Harry Pangemanan arrived in the United States in 1993 there was a virtual welcome mat out for him, according to Kaper-Dale.


"Immigrants on tourist visas flooded into Raritan Center where they were hiring. They got driver's licenses and Social Security numbers and went to work," he said.

The welcome status was changed by the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and by the faltering economy, which has lessened the need for workers.

Pangemanan was working as a supervisor before he was detained on Jan. 12. Every other week, he received a paycheck with about $250 taken out for taxes, his wife said yesterday. In addition to paying taxes, he never had any trouble with the law, she said.

Immigrants from Indonesia were drawn to Reformed Churches in New Jersey, said Kaper-Dale. Indonesia once was a colony of the Netherlands, where the Reformed Church is rooted.

Though an Indonesian congregation meets at the church here, the Pangemanans and their children joined the American congregation.

Since the Jan. 12 detention, members of the church have maintained a steady line of visitors to the Elizabeth facility.

Yana could not leave New Jersey to visit her husband in Tacoma without permission from ICE officials. She is required to call ICE once a month, using only the church office phone. The couple has spent about $20,000 in lawyers' fees in preparation for deportation hearings.

All visitors to the detention facilities, including spouses and children, are barred from direct contact with the detainees. They see each other through thick glass and speak into telephones.

The nature of those visits is especially difficult for children, according to Kaper-Dale.

"I have never seen a child leave there and not be crying," he said.

Phone calls to ICE representatives seeking comment on Pangemanan's case were not returned yesterday.

Harry Pangemanan arrived in the United States in 1993 there was a virtual welcome mat out for him, according to Kaper-Dale.

"Immigrants on tourist visas flooded into Raritan Center where they were hiring. They got driver's licenses and Social Security numbers and went to work," he said.

The welcome status was changed by the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and by the faltering economy, which has lessened the need for workers.

Pangemanan was working as a supervisor before he was detained on Jan. 12. Every other week, he received a paycheck with about $250 taken out for taxes, his wife said yesterday. In addition to paying taxes, he never had any trouble with the law, she said.

Immigrants from Indonesia were drawn to Reformed Churches in New Jersey, said Kaper-Dale. Indonesia once was a colony of the Netherlands, where the Reformed Church is rooted.

Though an Indonesian congregation meets at the church here, the Pangemanans and their children joined the American congregation.

Since the Jan. 12 detention, members of the church have maintained a steady line of visitors to the Elizabeth facility.

Yana could not leave New Jersey to visit her husband in Tacoma without permission from ICE officials. She is required to call ICE once a month, using only the church office phone. The couple has spent about $20,000 in lawyers' fees in preparation for deportation hearings.

All visitors to the detention facilities, including spouses and children, are barred from direct contact with the detainees. They see each other through thick glass and speak into telephones.

The nature of those visits is especially difficult for children, according to Kaper-Dale.

"I have never seen a child leave there and not be crying," he said.

Phone calls to ICE representatives seeking comment on Pangemanan's case were not returned yesterday.



http://www.app.com/article/20090401/NEW ... 1/1001/rss

"I have never seen a child leave there and not be crying," he said.

I may be wrong, but I'll bet no child of an American lawbreaker leaves prisions where they visit their criminal parents without crying either. So, by this preacher's reasoning, we should sling open the doors of every single prison in this nation and release all the prisoners and then reward them because their children cried.