Deaf boy's family gets deportation proceeding delay

From: WAVY-TV - Portsmouth,VA,USA - Jun 2, 2006

PHILADELPHIA A federal appeals court has temporarily halted the deportation of a severely deaf nine-year-old boy to allow his family time to make the case that he would be mistreated in his native Indonesia.

An attorney for the family won the delay in the federal appeals court in Philadelphia for Joshua Tantoro and his family.

Joshua's father, Beni Tan, is in the custody of immigration officials. The family came to the United States on visitors' visas and sought political asylum, saying they faced persecution as Chinese Christians in a majority Muslim nation.

Their bid for asylum failed, but a judge granted a stay of deportation to allow time to prepare a case arguing that the family should be granted asylum because Joshua would be mistreated because of his disability.

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