Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – The number of Indonesians getting caught in US President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown continues to grow, with Jakarta accusing Washington of ignoring the "due process of law" when detaining one of its citizens.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry revealed Thursday that the crackdown had ensnared 20 Indonesians to date, five of whom have been deported. Six were students or holders of F-1 student visas when they first came to the US, the ministry's citizen protection director Judha Nugraha said. According to the envoy, Indonesia respects Trump's immigration policy. But this doesn't mean Trump's federal agents can detain whoever they want without following the exact course of the law.
"We [Indonesia] would like to express our concerns about what the American authorities had done to [one of] our citizens, which did not follow the due process of law. His visa was still valid, but it was secretly revoked. We, Indonesia, respect the US' sovereignty to enforce its immigration laws," Judha said in Jakarta.
"But everything should pay attention to the due process in line with the existing laws in the US. This way, we can make sure that Indonesians still have their rights [when they encounter immigration agents]," Judha said.
Judha was referring to AWH, the Indonesian student who got detained by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency last month. AWH faced ICE detention after his student visa got revoked, but the married father-of-one was not informed of the cancellation. His visa was supposed to be valid until June 2026. According to Judha, such due process violation had only occurred in AWH's case so far. However, Indonesia fears that sudden visa cancellations might repeat in the future.
AWH's arrest was allegedly linked to his past involvement in protests. In 2022, AWH was charged with property destruction during a George Floyd protest. Floyd was a black man who died in police custody after being kneed on the neck for several minutes by a white officer in Minneapolis in May 2020. His death triggered massive protests across the US and around the world over police brutality against black people. AWH was also among the thousands of foreigners who have suddenly been stripped of their student visas since Trump took office for the second time early this year.
As of late November, at least 4,276 Indonesians are marked for deportation from the US. The immigration courts have ordered them to leave the US, although they still remain in the country. They are not held in ICE's detention facilities. Even so, they are at risk of deportation.