US courts stay deportation of Indian-origin man who wrongly spent 43 yrs in jail

Two separate courts have ordered immigration officials not to deport an Indian-origin man who spent four decades in prison before his murder conviction was overturned.

Subramanyam Vedam (64) is detained at a short-term holding centre in Alexandria, Louisiana, that’s equipped with an airstrip for deportations. Vedam, a legal permanent resident known as “Subu”, was transferred there from central Pennsylvania last week, relatives said.

An immigration judge stayed his deportation on Thursday until the Bureau of Immigration Appeals decides whether to review his case. That could take several months. Vedam’s lawyers also got a stay the same day in the US District Court in Pennsylvania, but said the case may be on hold given the immigration court ruling.

Vedam came to the US legally from India as an infant and grew up in State College, where his father taught at Penn State. He was serving a life sentence for a friend’s 1980 death before his conviction was overturned this year.

He was released from state prison on October 3, only to be 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. 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 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.