New Hampshire governor asks Trump not to deport 69 Indonesians

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Oct 25, 2017 06:00 am

BOSTON New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu yesterday publicly called on United States President Donald Trump, a fellow Republican, to halt an effort to deport 69 Indonesian Christians who fled violence in that country two decades ago and are living illegally in the state.

The group had been living near the state's coast under the terms of a 2010 deal worked out with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that allowed them to remain so long as they handed in their passports and turned up for regular check-ins with immigration officials.

That changed in August when members of the group arrived for scheduled meetings with ICE officials at the agency's Manchester, New Hampshire, office. They were told to buy one-way plane tickets back to Indonesia, which they fled after 1998 riots that left about 1,000 people dead.

"I am respectfully requesting that your administration reconsider its decision to deport these individuals, and I urge a resolution that will allow them to remain in the United States," Mr Sununu said in a letter to Mr Trump dated Friday, which his office made public yesterday. - REUTERS