Jakarta. Indonesia recently engaged in some deportation talks with the United States as four of its citizens had been caught in US President Donald Trump's sweeping immigration crackdown with one national already getting deported.

A growing number of undocumented foreign citizens are getting arrested by US authorities, including four Indonesian citizens, since Trump launched an immigration enforcement blitz nationwide early on in his second term. Thousands of Indonesians who have been marked for deportation are prone to become targets in these operations.

Chief Legal Affairs Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra hosted US Ambassador to Indonesia Kamala S Lakhdhir in his Jakarta office on Wednesday. The talks had zeroed in on Trump's deportation of illegal immigrants. Yusril told Lakhdhir that the Indonesian government would keep a close eye on the deportation rules.

"We will protect our citizens who are affected by this policy. We will work with the US to make sure that their rights remain respected," Yusril was quoted as saying in a ministerial press statement.

The American diplomat tried to dispel some worries over the crackdown, saying that it would only affect the undocumented citizens. In other words, those who enter the country legally should not have any problems with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

"Those who get deported are only people who are illegally [residing in the US]. We don't want to arrest them, but we will encourage them to return to Indonesia voluntarily," Lakhdhir said.

Lakhdhir gave some examples of the people who were at risk of getting deported. They include people who enter the US using a student visa but are no longer in the country legally because they have dropped out of university. There are also those who have entered the country unlawfully, according to the envoy.

As of Nov. 24, 2024, about 4,276 Indonesians are on the non-detained docket of ICE's final order of removal list. People on this list have received final deportation orders from immigration courts, but they still remain in the US. They are also not held in ICE's detention centers. This is somewhat of a tiny fraction as the final order of removal list has a total of 1.4 million foreigners. Still, they are at risk of deportation. Judha Nugraha, a senior official at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, revealed that ICE had arrested four Indonesians since Trump launched mass deportations.

"To date, we have four Indonesian nationals getting affected by the US government's immigration policy. One citizen, who was in San Francisco, had already been deported. Two are in Atlanta, Georgia. ... Their court hearing is on March 12," Judha told reporters in Jakarta on Thursday.

The other individual got caught in New York when making their routine check-ins with the local ICE agency. They will also undergo a court hearing.

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