Man wins temporary delay of deportation

A Philadelphia man threatened with deportation has won a temporary delay.  Anton Tanumihardja has been seeking asylum from his native Indonesia for nearly a decade.

Tanumihardja’s plea for asylum is based on the fact that he is gay, ethnically Chinese, and Catholic, all of which make him a possible target of hate crimes in Indonesia.

Attorney Lavi Soloway has been working with Tanumihardja on his case, and runs the website stopthedeportations.com.  He says Tanumihardja will be able to stay until the Board of Immigration Appeals rules on his latest appeal for asylum.

“They have now tied the enforcement of the removal order to the decision from the Board of Immigration Appeals on this motion,” says Soloway.  “They don’t have to do that.  They chose to do that: an exercise of discretion weighing all the equities in this case.”

Tanumihardja will still have to report monthly to the local immigration office and provide notice if he intends to leave Philadelphia.  It’s unclear when the board could rule on his appeal.