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    Indonesian student detained by Ice after US secretly revokes his visa

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    An Indonesian father of an infant with special needs, who was detained by federal agents at his hospital workplace in Minnesota after his student visa was secretly revoked, will remain in custody after an immigration judge ruled Thursday that his case can proceed.Judge Sarah Mazzie denied a motion to dismiss the case against Aditya Wahyu Harsono on humanitarian grounds, according to his attorney. Harsono, 33, was arrested four days after his visa was revoked without notice. He is scheduled for another hearing on 1 May.“His wife has been in a state of shock and exhaustion,” Sarah Gad, Harsono’s lawyer, said. “The Department of Homeland Security has weaponized the immigration system to serve just an entirely different purpose, which is to instill fear.”Harsono, a supply-chain manager at a hospital in Marshall, Minnesota, who is married to a US citizen, was surprised by authorities in his workplace basement on 27 March. Gad said that Harsono was detained without clear explanation and interrogated for hours.Harsono’s wife, Peyton, called Gad in a panic after she received a call from human resources at the hospital. Two Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents, dressed in plain clothes, had shown up and instructed the staff to stage a fake meeting in the basement so they could apprehend him, according to Gad.Hospital staff were distraught but felt forced to comply.“He unsuspectedly walks in, smiling, and then they just pull out their handcuffs and forcibly detain him, pushing against the wall, start frisking him, and stripping all of his belongings,” Gad said.View image in fullscreenThe Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Guardian.Harsono was brought to the Kandiyohi County Jail, where he is still detained, according to the Ice detainee locator.He told the Ice agents that his F-1 student visa was valid through June 2026, and that he had a pending green-card application based on his marriage to a citizen, but that he had been issued a notice to appear in court stating that he had overstayed his visa.His attorney said that as of 28 March, the day after his arrest, his F-1 visa was still active. Gad said the government revoked it without any notice to him, and then claimed he had overstayed.The revocation was backdated to 23 March and allegedly based on his 2022 misdemeanor conviction for graffitiing a semi-truck trailer. Gad said that this is not a deportable offense under the Immigration and Nationality Act. He had traveled internationally and returned multiple times to Indonesia since the conviction without incident.The day before Harsono’s bond hearing, DHS disclosed their evidence against him. Besides stating that his visa had been revoked for the misdemeanor graffiti conviction, for which he paid $100 in restitution, they also mentioned an arrest from 2021 during a protest over the murder of George Floyd. That charge was dismissed.Harsono is Muslim and frequently posts on social media in support of humanitarian relief for Gaza. He also runs a small non-profit, which sells art and merchandise, with proceeds going to organizations aiding Gaza.His wife and eight-month-old daughter, who has special needs, are distraught by his arrest, Gad said. After the judge granted Harsono a $5,000 bond on 10 April, the Minnesota Freedom Fund had been en route to pay it. But DHS immediately filed a notice to appeal the bond decision, which triggered an automatic stay, meaning Harsono had to remain in custody. Gad said this type of move is rare, usually only seen when a judge grants bond to someone charged with violent or serious crimes.“You never involve stays of an immigration judge’s bond order for a minor conviction when somebody’s on their way to becoming a green-card holder,” she said.Gad is preparing to file a federal petition and a temporary restraining order against DHS.In an appeal for help on GoFundMe, Harsono’s wife explained that her husband had been fired from his job while in detention and now the family is “in danger of losing our apartment” and they “no longer have health insurance”.The Minnesota Nurses Association condemned the hospital worker’s arrest and restated its position that “nurses should not and will not serve any role in immigration enforcement” and its hope that “all hospital employees will also reject a role in assisting Ice”.Harsono’s case comes amid a wave of reports of student visas being revoked under the Trump administration’s new executive policy. The actions by the federal government to terminate students’ legal status have left hundreds of scholars at risk of detention and deportation.At least 901 students at 128 colleges and universities have had their visas revoked or their legal statuses terminated since mid-March, according to an Associated Press review of university statements and correspondence with school officials.In some high-profile cases, including the detention of the former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, the Trump administration has argued it should be allowed to deport noncitizens over involvement in pro-Palestinian activism it casts as antisemitic. But in the vast majority of visa revocations, colleges say there is no indication that affected students had a role in protests. More

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      Bumble Bee Foods Is Accused of Tolerating Forced Labor in Supply Chain

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      In a lawsuit filed in California, the plaintiffs said that Bumble Bee Foods was aware of and benefited from abuse by suppliers. The company declined to comment.On a ship that caught tuna for American consumers, fishermen said they were fed so little that they resorted to eating the bait. On another, a worker said he was beaten repeatedly by the captain, sometimes with a metal hook. On a third, a man who experienced severe burns in a kitchen accident said he was denied medical care and survived only by treating himself with Vaseline.All three boats offloaded their catch to other vessels, remaining at sea for months. For those who wanted to leave, there was little hope.These accusations are central to a new lawsuit filed by four Indonesian fishermen. They say they want to right a wrong that, according to them, was tolerated by one of America’s oldest tuna brands, Bumble Bee Foods.They are suing the company in federal court in California, accusing it of being aware of and benefiting from forced labor on ships operated by its suppliers. Bumble Bee, which is based in San Diego, said it would not comment on pending litigation.“I want justice,” Muhammad Syafi’i, one of the plaintiffs, said in a Zoom interview from his home in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta. “For myself, for my fate. And for my friends who are still out there.”In 2021, he was employed as a cook on a boat that caught tuna that was sold to Bumble Bee (but also had to help with the fishing). He was forced to fork over nearly half of his $320 monthly salary for months. That July, he was severely burned when hot oil from his wok spilled onto the lower half of his body. He said the captain refused to get him medical care for months. Eventually, he was allowed to return home.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Rohingya Refugees Are Stranded at Sea for Days as Residents Reject Them

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      Residents of a town in western Indonesia shared food with the refugees but declined to host them, leaving them stuck on a boat miles from shore.Rohingya refugees have been barred entry to an Indonesian town because of unrest in other nearby towns that welcomed others, according to a community leader in Aceh Province.Hotli Simanjuntak/EPA, via ShutterstockA boat carrying about 140 Rohingya refugees has been stranded miles off the coast of Indonesia for over a week, banned from arriving on land as Indonesian communities increasingly shun Rohingya refugees arriving by sea.Near the boat, residents of a town in Aceh Province had been working with the United Nations’ refugee agency to provide food and water to the stranded group, said Muhammad Jabal, the chairman of the fisheries association in the South Aceh region. The residents were unwilling to host the group on land because of unrest that Mr. Jabal said was happening in nearby towns that had welcomed other refugees.“They’ve caused disturbances: for example, littering, theft and various security and safety issues,” Mr. Jabal said in a phone interview. “As a community, we request that, if possible, the boat not stay in our area.” He added that he did not know what should be done about the refugees.The impasse follows a recent surge in the number of Rohingya refugees arriving by boat in Indonesia, which has hosted thousands of them before. Last year, a wave of rejections began, prompted in part by misinformation about the Rohingya on social media, said Murizal Hamzah, an Aceh resident and writer of two books about Rohingya.Tiy Chung, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency, said in an emailed statement that the agency was discussing the situation with the authorities on the ground. “We hope to get people disembarked to safety,” he said.The Rohingya people, who are mostly Muslim, are one of the most persecuted ethnic groups in the world. About a million of them have been displaced from Myanmar, many of them after the Rohingya genocide of 2017, forced to flee for safety and livelihoods, along with access to education.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Scandal of the Indonesian Leader’s Son and the Private Jet

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      It was a major blow to the Everyman image cultivated by President Joko Widodo, who is stepping down on Sunday.At first glance, it looked like so many other photos posted on social media, the kind taken by excited travelers en route. The wing of a plane, juxtaposed against fluffy white clouds, with the sun streaming through. The caption read: “U.S.A. here we go.”On board that August flight from Jakarta to Los Angeles were Kaesang Pangarep, the younger son of President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, and Mr. Kaesang’s wife, Erina Gudono. Details of the trip trickled out on Ms. Erina’s social media accounts: a $1,500 stroller for their soon-to-be-born baby and a $25 lobster roll for lunch. Her posts were seen as tone deaf and led to an uproar at home because most Indonesians cannot afford luxury items.But what made many furious was the fact that the couple traveled on a private jet. It was the antithesis of the Everyman image Mr. Joko has long projected. The plane was linked to Shopee, the operator of an online mall. The company had planned to construct a new building in the city of Solo, where Mr. Joko began his political career and where until recently the mayor was his older son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka.“If Kaesang wasn’t the mayor’s brother who had signed an agreement with Shopee, would he really have been able to fly on Shopee’s private jet?” said Boyamin Saiman, the coordinator of the Indonesian Anti-Corruption Community, a watchdog group, which filed a complaint over the matter.Mr. Kaesang has denied wrongdoing, saying he “hitchhiked” on a friend’s plane while not disclosing who the friend is.The nation’s graft-fighting body, the Corruption Eradication Commission, is now investigating whether the flight constituted a bribe. The probe is still undergoing an “internal administration process,” according to a spokesman from the commission. It’s unclear who owns the jet now, but it was once the property of Garena Online, which has the same corporate parent as Shopee: Singapore-based SEA Limited. Garena did not respond to a request for comment.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Man Helped Distribute ‘Sadistic’ Torture Videos of Monkeys, U.S. Says

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      Philip Colt Moss, 41, paid another man for videos of monkeys being sexually abused, tortured and killed, prosecutors said. A child in Indonesia made the videos, according to a previous indictment.An Iowa man was arrested this month for his role in a group that created and shared so-called animal crush videos in which monkeys were brutally tortured, sexually abused and killed in sadistic ways, federal prosecutors said on Friday.The man, Philip Colt Moss, 41, who was arrested on Aug. 8, was charged in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati with conspiracy to create and distribute the videos and with distributing the videos themselves, according to the indictment, which was unsealed on Friday.Also named in the indictment against Mr. Moss are Nicholas T. Dryden, of Ohio, and Giancarlo Morelli, of New Jersey, who were charged in June with the same counts as Mr. Moss.Mr. Dryden, who prosecutors said had paid a minor in Indonesia to film the videos, is also charged with “creation of animal crush videos, as well as with production, distribution and receipt of a visual depiction of the sexual abuse of children because a minor was paid to abuse the monkeys,” the Department of Justice said.Mr. Moss and Mr. Morelli were two of Mr. Dryden’s customers, prosecutors said.From February to April of last year, Mr. Moss sent Mr. Dryden $1,447 for the videos, discussed them and mentioned plans to take a trip to Indonesia with Mr. Dryden to make crush videos themselves, according to the indictment.Lawyers for the three men did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday night. Prosecutors also did not immediately respond.Mr. Moss and Mr. Dryden appeared to have become friends, according to charging documents, with Mr. Dryden even offering to give Mr. Moss free videos.“If ur low on bread brother I’ll throw u a couple for free,” Mr. Dryden said in a text message to Mr. Moss that was included in the indictment.Mr. Moss called Mr. Dryden a “good friend” and responded that he appreciated the offer but insisted on paying because “u work hard to make that all happen.”If convicted on the counts he faces, Mr. Moss could face a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison, according to the Justice Department.Kirsten Noyes More

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      Ex-General Accused of Rights Abuses Wins Indonesia Election

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      The official result confirmed projections made after last month’s vote, which raised concerns about the vibrancy of the country’s democracy.The NewsA feared former general won last month’s presidential election in Indonesia, official results released on Wednesday showed, confirming unofficial projections.That candidate, Prabowo Subianto, who is now Indonesia’s defense minister, garnered 58.6 percent of the vote, according to the final tally by the General Election Commission.The result means that Mr. Prabowo, who was placed under a visa blacklist by the United States for about two decades over human rights abuses, won the election outright, avoiding a runoff with the second-place candidate.Although the official count is over, the process for Mr. Prabowo to be officially declared president-elect could be a protracted one. His opponents — Anies Baswedan, who had 24.9 percent of the vote, and Ganjar Pranowo, who took 16.5 percent — have said they plan to challenge the result.They accuse the outgoing president, Joko Widodo, of improperly influencing the election and claim widespread irregularities during the Feb. 14 vote. They have not provided proof of election-day impropriety but said they had evidence to prove their claims in court.Mr. Prabowo’s representatives reject these claims, noting that nearly every poll before the election showed him as the front-runner.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Indonesia Investigates How Two Pilots Dozed Off During a Flight

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      The incident, which caused the plane carrying 153 people to veer off course before landing safely, added to the country’s troubling aviation safety record.Indonesia’s aviation authority said it would review how the country’s airlines operate night flights after both pilots on a Batik Air flight carrying 153 passengers fell asleep, causing the plane to briefly veer off course.The flight — a journey of about three hours from Kendari to Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, early on Jan. 25 — was a return leg for the crew and plane, which had spent less than an hour on the ground after arriving from Jakarta.The plane took off from Kendari around 8 a.m., and after reaching cruising altitude, the captain took a nap while the co-pilot manned the flight, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Committee. After about an hour, the co-pilot accidentally fell asleep, and several frantic calls from the air traffic control center and other aircraft went unanswered.About 28 minutes later, the pilot woke up, realized the plane had veered off course and woke up the co-pilot. They course corrected, and the plane landed safely in Jakarta.Batik Air is owned by Lion Air Group, Indonesia’s largest air travel company, which has a troubled safety record. In 2018, one of its flights fell out of the sky moments after takeoff, killing all 189 people on board. In 2013, a Lion Air flight crashed into the sea while trying to land; all passengers were safely evacuated. And in 2004, 25 people were killed in a Lion Air crash in Surakarta, Indonesia.In recent years, Lion Air Group has made significant investments into improving the safety of its flights, said Gerry Soejatman, an Indonesian aviation expert and consultant, but he added that it was unclear whether the investments were addressing the underlying issues or making quick fixes.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      What is Joko Widodo’s Role in Indonesia’s Election?

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      Today’s vote is seen as a referendum on President Joko Widodo, who focused on economic growth but eventually curtailed liberties, critics say.More than 100 million people are voting on Wednesday in one of the biggest elections in the world. The contest for the top prize — the presidency of Indonesia — is a three-way race.But looming large is someone not on the ballot.That person is Joko Widodo, the incumbent president, who is not allowed to seek a third five-year term and will step down in October. A decade after Mr. Joko presented himself as a down-to-earth reformer and won office, he remains incredibly popular.Many of his supporters say that he has largely delivered on his promise of putting Indonesia on the path to becoming a rich country in the coming decades, with ambitious infrastructure and welfare projects like the plan to build a new capital city and a universal health system.At the same time, Mr. Joko has also overseen what critics describe as the regression of civil liberties. He has stripped down the powers of an anti-corruption agency, rammed through a contentious labor law and, more recently, appeared to engineer the placement of one of his sons on the ballot for vice president.Mr. Joko appears to be backing Mr. Prabowo, a former general who has been accused of rights abuses. Ulet Ifansasti for The New York TimesMaking matters worse, critics say, is the presidential hopeful he appears to be backing: Prabowo Subianto, a former general who was once a rival of Mr. Joko and who is accused of committing human rights abuses when Indonesia was a dictatorship. Mr. Prabowo, whose running mate is Mr. Joko’s son Gibran Rakabuming Raka, has been ahead in the polls.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Manhattan or Pulau Rhun? In 1667, Nutmeg Made the Choice a No-Brainer.

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      The isles of Manhattan and Pulau Rhun could hardly be farther apart, not just in geography, but also in culture, economy and global prominence.Rhun, in the Banda Sea in Indonesia, has no cars or roads and only about 20 motorbikes. Most people get around by walking along its paved footpaths or up steep stairways, often toting plastic jugs of water from the numerous village wells or sometimes lugging a freshly caught tuna.But in the 17th century, in what might now seem one of the most lopsided trades in history, the Netherlands believed it got the better part of a bargain with the British when it swapped Manhattan, then known as New Amsterdam, for this tiny speck of land.The delight the Dutch took in the deal can be summed up in one word: nutmeg.With its forest of nutmeg, a spice worth its weight in gold at the time, Rhun used to be one of the world’s most valuable patches of real estate.Rhun has no cars or roads and only about 20 motorbikes. Electricity comes on only at night.Cellphone service recently arrived on the island, but connections are spotty. More