US courts stay deportation of Indian-origin man freed after 43 Years

The deportation of an Indian origin man from the US, whose conviction in a murder case was overturned after he spent over four decades in jail, has been stayed by two separate courts.

A legal permanent US resident

Subramanyam Vedam, 64, is currently detained at a short-term holding centre in Alexandria, Louisiana, that is equipped with an airstrip for deportations.

His relatives said that Vedam, a legal permanent resident known as “Subu,” was transferred there from central Pennsylvania last week.

Vedam’s deportation was stayed by an immigration judge on Thursday until the Bureau of Immigration Appeals take a call on whether to review his case. The process could take several months, reported PTI.

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On the same day, Vedam's lawyers obtained a stay from the US District Court in Pennsylvania, but said that the case may be on hold given the immigration court ruling.

Vedam came to the US as a nine-month-old infant. He grew up in State College, where his father taught at Penn State and He was serving a life sentence for a friend's 1980 death before his conviction was overturned this year.

Charged with LSD delivery

After his release from state prison on October 3, he was taken straight into immigration custody. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is seeking to deport Vedam over his no-contest plea to charges of LSD delivery, filed when he was about 20.

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Although his lawyers argue that the four decades he wrongly spent in prison, where he earned degrees and tutored fellow inmates, should outweigh the drug case, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said on Monday (November 4) that the reversal in the murder case does not negate the drug conviction.

“Having a single conviction vacated will not stop ICE's enforcement of the federal immigration law," Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, said in an email.

Family welcomes courts’ decision

Vedam's sister said on Monday that the family is relieved “that two different judges have agreed that Subu's deportation is unwarranted while his effort to reopen his immigration case is still pending."

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“We're also hopeful that the Board of Immigration Appeals will ultimately agree that Subu's deportation would represent another untenable injustice,” Saraswathi Vedam said, "inflicted on a man who not only endured 43 years in a maximum-security prison for a crime he didn't commit, but has also lived in the US since he was 9 months old.”

(With agency inputs)