Philly Indonesian couple win bid to stay in the U.S. after community rallied to stop their deportation

When the immigration judge ruled that she and her husband could stay in the United States, Elly Sukawanputra said, something inside her unclenched.

A knot she carried for years as a constant, uncomfortable presence suddenly vanished.

She and Yulius, her spouse, hugged their college-age daughters in the Philadelphia courtroom, knowing their children had been freed from the fear of being separated from their mother and father.

They phoned Elly’s parents in Indonesia, who wept in joy and relief.

“We feel so happy,” Elly, 48, said in a recent interview. “You’re scared for how many years …”

“We tried for a long time,” said Yulius, 49.

The couple’s fight to remain in the country where they’ve lived for 23 years saw them jailed and set on the precipice of deportation — a fate that promised not merely loss and disruption but danger, because they are Christians of Chinese descent. Churches in Indonesia have been targeted by suicide bombers, and one person recently was beheaded in militant attacks on Indonesia’s Christian minority.

Their award of legal, permanent residency on June 29 illustrates the vagaries of a system that admits some and deports others, even among people who share similar circumstances and histories.

“Random,” said the couple’s lawyer, Christopher Casazza, of the Center City firm of Palladino, Isbell & Casazza, “is exactly the right word.”

If not for his advocacy, and the strong backing of the local Indonesian and Asian community, the couple could be in Indonesia now.

On July 2, 2019, almost three years ago to the day, all anyone knew was that Elly and Yulius vanished after being approached by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as they left their South Philadelphia home to go to work.

A friend made a desperate effort to get information from the local ICE field office. Phone calls later confirmed the two were being held in federal custody.

Yulius had been taken to the Pike County Correctional Facility, and Elly to York County Prison. Separation is a common tactic, immigrant advocates said, to make it harder for community organizations to track locations and connect families with legal support.

The arrest sparked a case that had smoldered since Elly and Yulius came to the United States in 1998, seeking escape from persecution in Indonesia. Their bid for asylum was turned down in 2007 and 2009. By then they had welcomed two daughters.

The couple checked in with ICE every year, never expecting to be arrested.

When it happened, Casazza acted immediately, filing two motions: one for a stay of removal, to try to block their deportation, and the other to reopen their asylum case, because of changing conditions in their homeland.

The arrests, as the couple left for their jobs at a delicatessen, upset their neighbors and friends. The Indonesian and Asian communities rallied, raising money, strategizing, and promoting the couple’s cause.

Their detention gained wide attention after university professor Elisa von Joeden-Forgey wrote what became a viral opinion essay for The Inquirer, describing her frantic attempts to help her friends and the dismissive treatment she received from ICE agents.

The arrest threw the family into crisis. Yulius and Elly lost their jobs. Their children, then about 15 and 19, were bereft without their parents. They went to live with Yulius’ brother in the Philadelphia area. The couple spent five months in jail before a judge in York County ruled that they could be released on bail of $2,500 each.

“From day one, the community came together to help,” said Sinta Penyami Storms, a local leader known for teaching traditional Indonesian dance. “We did that because they were always there for the community, as well. These are hardworking people who paid their taxes and never broke the law.”

ICE officials referred questions about the case to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which processes immigration applications. A spokesperson there said the agency does not comment on individual cases because of privacy concerns.

“Such great news, such special people,” said von Joeden-Forgey, who now teaches Holocaust and genocide studies at Keene State College in New Hampshire. “To have that wrong made right feels really good.”

At the same time, she said, the court decision is “a partial justice” that can’t erase the time the two spent in jail or stop the casual cruelty of a system that treats immigrants fleeing violence as if they’re security threats.

“I breathe a sigh of relief, for Elly and Yulius and their children,” said City Councilmember Helen Gym, who actively supported the couple. “But I want to be clear that their cruel suffering should never have happened in the first place.”

They and millions of others should have a path to U.S. citizenship that is ready and accessible, she said.

The couple’s approval of legal permanent residency, also known as a green card, came at a time when the United States has sought to deport larger numbers of Asian immigrants, many of them refugees who have lived in this country for decades. In Philadelphia and elsewhere, the detention and deportation of Vietnamese, Cambodians, Indonesians, and Chinese have provoked a crisis for communities that already are often ignored.

Advocates say the threat of deportation is but a different form of anti-Asian violence, coming in government policies that remove people to the very nations from which they and their families fled.

“We try to control what’s in our control, but the system is random,” Casazza said. “Indonesians detained under the same circumstances at the same time were deported.”

Even as his legal motions went forward, along with a separate federal lawsuit, he said, ICE was trying to deport the couple, seeking travel documents and permission from the Indonesian government to send them back.

The arrival of the pandemic helped their case. Health restrictions caused widespread closures and delays in immigration courts. Time passed, the couple’s daughters grew — and the elder turned 21.

That meant, as an American citizen, she could file what’s called an I-130 petition with USCIS. That’s how citizens and permanent residents seek to have close relatives, such as parents, either come to the United States or stay in the country if they’re already here.

Legal permanent residency carries the right to apply for citizenship after five years. Elly and Yulius say they’re eager to become citizens, to participate fully in American life. He now works at a warehouse, she as a cashier.

In the spring, the couple’s elder daughter graduated from Swarthmore College; the younger will be a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania in the fall.

There are no words, Elly said, to describe their gratitude for all that people did to support them.

“We’re really thankful for everyone,” she said. “Without them, I don’t think we’d be here now.”