Two US courts have put a stop to the deportation of Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam, a 64-year-old man of Indian origin who was recently released from prison after almost 40 years for a wrongful conviction of murder, earlier this year. Vedam, who came to America legally from India as a child and was raised in State College, Pennsylvania, was released from the state prison on October 3, but within hours he was taken into deportation custody in Louisiana.
On Thursday an immigration judge stayed his deportation until the Board of Immigration Appeals decides whether to review his case, which could take months. On the same day a U.S. District Judge in Pennsylvania stayed his deportation as well, but that case will remain stayed as the immigration court case is being resolved.
The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is seeking Vedam’s deportation based on a decades-old no-contest plea to charges related to the delivery of LSD, which occurred when he was nearly 20 years old. Vedam’s lawyers argued that years of wrongful imprisonment, pursuit of an education, and serving as a mentor to fellow inmates should outweigh the old DST delivery charge. ICE officials argued that federal law still has to be followed.
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