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Local Indonesian couple released from ICE detention

The Rev. Kurniawan Diputra, of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Community, 1719 Morris St., was among those who traveled on Monday to York County Prison’s Immigration Court for a bond hearing for an Indonesian husband and wife.

City Councilwoman Helen Gym and the couple’s family were also on hand.

Yulius and Elly Sukawanputra, who live in the Italian Market neighborhood, were granted $2,500 bonds, and ordered to be released after five months of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention.

Yulius and Elly, who have two daughters, ages 19 and 15, were arrested on July 2 in front of their home. Their families came to the United States in 1998.

The couple’s asylum case was denied multiple times in 2007 and again in 2009. They were told to check in with ICE annually.

“I am honored to be part of a community that stood up for this Philadelphia family,” Gym said. “But I am outraged by a system that abducts and disappears people off the very streets on which they live. I am outraged by a system that separates parents from their children with no regard for their health and safety. And I am frustrated with a nation that seems to have little interest in providing a path to citizenship for a family which is the very model of the ideals of this nation. I am so glad for the children and loved ones of Yulius and Elly. When so many are in senseless detention, we must work to ensure that we develop a path to citizenship for Yulius and Elly and many others like them.”

Their attorney, Chris Casazza, filed a motion to reopen their asylum case.

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