Pennsylvania Man Detained By ICE After Murder Exoneration

It can never be emphasized enough that while the Trump administration has sold its massive deportation crackdown as an agenda to save America from violent criminals who entered the country illegally, we’re not seeing those perp walks. Instead, we’re seeing stories about citizens, including laborers, Hyundai plant workers, green card holders, cops, education officials, journalists and social media influencers — some of whom have been in the U.S. for decades and raised families here — being detained, arrested and deported for allegedly overstaying their visas or not having all their paper work in order, and, in some cases, simply promoting ideologies the president doesn’t like.

And, often, it seems the cruelty is the point.

An Indian man from Pennsylvania, who was recently exonerated after spending more than four decades in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, is now in ICE custody, facing deportation based on a decades-old order that was tied to his false conviction.

Earlier this month, the district attorney for Centre County dismissed murder charges against 64-year-old Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam, who, in 1983, was convicted of the murder of Tom Kinser, a 19-year-old college student who went missing from State College three years prior.

From the Guardian:

Kinser and Vedam were former classmates and had lived together briefly as roommates. On the day Kinser disappeared, Vedam asked for a ride. Kinser’s car was later found parked in its usual spot, though no one saw it being returned. Vedam, who was born in India and arrived in the US at nine months old, was charged with Kinser’s murder and had his passport and green card seized by authorities. He was also denied bail as he was labeled a “foreigner likely to flee”.

In 1983, Vedam was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. A year later, Vedam received an additional sentence of two and a half to five years for a drug offense as part of a plea deal that was to be served simultaneously with his life sentence.

While in prison, Vedam maintained his innocence of the murder charges and continued to appeal against his conviction on circumstantial evidence. In 2021, new evidence in Kinser’s murder case surfaced, leading to Vedam’s exoneration earlier this month. The Centre county district attorney also announced it will not seek a new trial against Vedam, USA Today reported.

It should have been a joyous — albeit bittersweet — moment for Vedam to finally be free again after spending most of his life with his freedom stripped away over something he didn’t do. But that moment would be short-lived, because upon his exoneration, Vedam was taken into custody by immigration officers. According to the Miami Herald, an ICE rep accused Vedam of being a “career criminal with a rap sheet dating back to 1980,” as well as “a convicted controlled substance trafficker.”

USA Today reported that ICE officials cited a 1988 deportation order for the murder conviction and a drug crime, and the legal technicality that the murder exoneration doesn’t cancel out the drug charge.

Now, you see, there’s a pattern here.

The federal government, under President Donald Trump, arrests someone who doesn’t quite fit its narrative of the dangerous, violent threats to America that the administration has promised to keep us safe from, so they immediately move to vilify them by calling them criminals — whether they already have criminal records or not, as ICE’s own database shows most of them don’t — and using language intended to paint them in the worst light possible.

In Vedam’s case, any crime he may have been convicted of in his life is at least four decades old and no longer includes the murder for which he was exonerated. To present this man as a current “career criminal” to justify deporting him right after he was exonerated and released isn’t just disingenuous; it’s flat-out heartless.

“All we want is for him to be home with us and to be able to move forward in life,” Vedam’s niece, Zoë Miller-Vedam, who lives in California, told USA Today.

Vedam’s lawyer, Ava Benach, told the outlet, “Subu has lived in the U.S. since he was a nine-month-old infant when he and his family arrived as lawful permanent residents of the United States.

“He was still a lawful permanent resident, and his application for citizenship had been accepted, when he was arrested in 1982,” she added.

Yeah — none of this is about keeping America safe. It’s about a vehemently xenophobic administration carrying out the will of the most vehemently xenophobic members of the American populace.

Sometimes, you just have to know when you’re the villain in a story.

SEE ALSO:

Federal Judge Places Restrictions On ICE Arrests In Chicago

Federal Judge Rules ICE Racially Profiles

ICE Arrests Pennsylvania Man Right After His Exoneration For A Murder He Spent 43 Years In Prison For  was originally published on newsone.com