Indonesia strengthens efforts against US deportation

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian government is preparing for the possible deportation of its citizens from the United States, following stricter immigration policies imposed by US President Donald Trump.

The government held a coordination meeting in Jakarta on Friday (April 25) to discuss the Indonesian citizen protection strategy.

An official from the Coordinating Ministry for Law, Human Rights, Immigration, and Correction, stated that the government is preparing anticipatory steps, even though there has been no official statement from the US government targeting Indonesian citizens for deportation.

"(This is) especially for Indonesian citizens who are indeed indicated or have immigration problems," the ministry's Assistant Deputy for Immigration Management Coordination, Achmad Brahmantyo Machmud, noted in a statement on Tuesday.

Machmud affirmed that the government must be ready to facilitate the issuance of passport-like travel documents (SPLP) and deploy a team if mass deportations of Indonesian citizens occur.

On the other hand, the ministry proposed revising the Regulation of the Minister of Law and Human Rights (Permenkumham) Number 19 of 2024, especially Article 7, to allow greater flexibility in passport issuance under certain circumstances.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also supported this suggestion, recommending the re-implementation of a more flexible policy as stated in Permenkumham Number 8 of 2014.

On the same occasion, Judha Nugraha, the Director of the Protection of Indonesian Citizens at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, noted that 53.5 percent of the violations faced by Indonesian citizens abroad were related to immigration.

"There are more than 60 thousand Indonesian citizens who have registered with the Indonesian Embassy in Washington, D.C., thousands of whom did not have complete and valid immigration documents," he remarked.

He added that one of the obstacles is the policy restricting passport issuance by Indonesian representatives abroad.

Under Permenkumham Number 19 of 2024, passports can only be issued to Indonesian citizens with a valid residence permit in the host country. This regulation prohibited the Indonesian representative office from issuing passports to Indonesian citizens who had problems with immigration documents.

The meeting agreed on the importance of cross-sector coordination and the need for consistent policy orchestration. The government also highlighted the importance of informing Indonesian citizens abroad about new regulations.

The government also encourages synergy among the Presidential Staff Office, the Coordinating Ministry for Political and Security Affairs, and the Coordinating Ministry for Law, Human Rights, Immigration, and Correction, along with other related ministries and institutions, to protect Indonesian citizens.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry reported that as of April 21, some 15 Indonesian citizens had been arrested in the US on charges of immigration violations amid increasing action against immigrants under Trump's administration.

"Of the 15 Indonesians, some have been detained and some were deported," Nugraha revealed.

He confirmed that one of the Indonesian citizens in the US, Aditya Harsono Wicaksono (AH), who resides in Marshall, Minnesota, was allegedly detained due to his involvement in protests related to the death of George Floyd, which sparked the Black Lives Matter movement in 2021.

The 33-year-old man was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at his workplace on March 27.