Two separate US courts have issued a stay of deportation for Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam, a 64-year-old legal permanent resident of Indian origin, who had spent 43 years in prison for a murder conviction that was recently overturned.
Vedam, who came to the US as an infant, was released from state prison on October 3 but was immediately taken into the custody of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The Injustice Compounded
Vedam’s murder conviction for the 1980 death of a friend was thrown out earlier this year after new evidence revealed prosecutors had withheld an FBI report that contradicted key ballistics testimony. Despite his exoneration, ICE moved to deport him based on a decades-old no-contest plea to LSD delivery charges filed when he was about 20.
- The Grounds for Deportation: ICE is enforcing a decades-old deportation order tied to the drug plea, arguing that vacating the murder conviction does not negate the separate, earlier drug offense. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson stated, “Having a single conviction vacated will not stop ICE’s enforcement of the federal immigration law.”
- The Family’s Plea: Vedam’s lawyers and his sister, Saraswathi Vedam, argue that the four decades of wrongful imprisonment, during which he earned degrees and tutored fellow inmates, should outweigh the youthful drug case. His sister stated the deportation would represent “another untenable injustice” inflicted on a man who has lived in the US since he was nine months old and has no meaningful ties to India.
Two Courts Grant Relief
On Thursday, an immigration judge paused Vedam’s deportation until the Board of Immigration Appeals decides whether to review his case, a process that could take several months. A US District Court in Pennsylvania issued a similar stay on the same day.
Vedam is currently being held at an ICE holding center in Alexandria, Louisiana, while his legal team fights to reopen his immigration case and allow him to remain in the country he considers home.
