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Court Rulings Prevent Deportation

In Philadelphia, two courts have intervened to prevent the deportation of Subramanyam Vedam, a man of Indian descent who spent 40 years behind bars before his murder conviction was overturned.

Currently, Vedam, 64, is being held at a short-term detention facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, which is equipped for deportation flights. His family reported that he was moved there from central Pennsylvania last week.

An immigration judge has postponed his deportation while the Bureau of Immigration Appeals considers whether to review his situation, a process that may take several months. Additionally, Vedam's legal team secured a stay in the US District Court in Pennsylvania, although they noted that the immigration court's decision may affect the case's status.

Vedam immigrated to the United States from India as a baby and was raised in State College, where his father was a professor at Penn State. He had been serving a life sentence for the 1980 murder of a friend, a conviction that was overturned this year.

After being released from state prison on October 3, he was immediately taken into immigration custody.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is pursuing his deportation due to a no-contest plea related to LSD distribution charges from when he was around 20 years old. His attorneys argue that the decades he spent wrongfully imprisoned, during which he earned degrees and helped educate fellow inmates, should be considered more significant than the drug-related conviction.

A spokesperson from the Department of Homeland Security stated that the reversal of the murder conviction does not eliminate the drug charge.

Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, emphasized in an email that a single vacated conviction does not halt ICE's enforcement of immigration laws.

Vedam's sister expressed relief that two judges have recognized the unjust nature of his deportation while his immigration case is still under review. She remains hopeful that the Board of Immigration Appeals will agree that deporting Vedam would be another grave injustice against a man who has lived in the US since he was nine months old and endured 43 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.