After 19 Months of Church Sanctuary, Ex-Fulbright Scholar Spared Deportation
After nearly two years held up in the sanctuary of a Connecticut church, Sujitno Sajuti walked out Friday after ICE officials said they no longer wanted to deport him to his native Indonesia.
May 31, 2019 at 03:55 PM
2 minute read
Sujitno Sajuti of Indonesia attends a rally by Connecticut immigrants and social rights advocates against the federal Secure Communities program at the State Capitol in Hartford in 2012. Sajuti was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in 2017. Photo: Jessica Hill/AP
A former Fulbright scholar left the sanctuary of a Connecticut church Friday after fighting deportation to his native Indonesia for nearly two years, according to a statement from Attorney General William Tong.
Tong, who announced that Sujitno Sajuti had been granted deferred action and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement no longer seeks to deport him, said in a statement, “I am overjoyed for Sujitno Sajuti, who can finally return home (to West Hartford) today after 19 long months in sanctuary. There is something horribly broken with our immigration system that this 70-year-old man who has lived peacefully here for three decades was deemed a priority for deportation.”
Tong, a strong critic of the Trump administration, continued: “This is certainly not a wise use of federal resources. So, today we celebrate this victory for Sujitno and his wife, but tomorrow we get back to work on behalf of so many other families still separated by the Trump administration's cruel and irrational deportation regime.”
Sajuti's plight has caught the attention of media from around the country. He lived inside Meriden's Unitarian Universalist Church for 598 days since ICE ordered him to board a plane in 2017, according to news outlets.
Sajuti, according to WVIT-TV, came to the United States in 1981 on a Fulbright scholarship, earning advanced degrees from the University of Connecticut and Columbia University. But the news station said Sajuti overstayed his student visa and remained in this country.
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