A day after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents came knocking at Harry Pangemanan’s door, his two U.S.-born daughters returned to the Highland Park house, escorted by a volunteer, and spotted the front door open.
Then, he said, they spotted the crushed door frame and items strewn around the floor of their bedrooms.
“Whoever did this one, they (did) not just do the damage to me, but I just want to make it known to everyone that they did damage to Americans’ lives,” said Harry Pangemanan, an immigrant without legal status who on Thursday entered sanctuary at the Reformed Church of Highland Park. “They started destroying my children’s lives.”
The Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale said Pangemanan’s was one of two houses ransacked between Friday and Saturday morning. The Edison home of Arthur Jemmy and Silfia Tobing, an Indonesian Christian couple who entered sanctuary in October to escape deportation, was also trashed.
“I don’t know what to say,” said Arthur Jemmy, also an immigrant without legal status. “I’m speechless.”
Kaper-Dale said church members notified the Highland Park and Edison police departments. Highland Park police said the incident at Pangemanan’s house is being investigated as a burglary.
