Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials on Monday deported the last of four Indonesian Christians detained last month in New Jersey when they showed up for a routine check-in.

Officials rejected a stay of removal application for Oldy Manopo on Friday. Manopo left the country hours after the Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale, who had advocated for the men, rallied with other supporters outside the detention center where Manopo was staying. Manopo previously lived with his daughter’s family and helped take care of his 4-month-old grandson.

“We’ve lost a real gem,” Kaper-Dale told The Record of Bergen County, N.J.

Officials also deported Rovani Wangko and Saul Timisela last week and Arino Massie last month. The four men fled persecution in Indonesia in the 1990s but missed the asylum application deadline. They were able to reach an agreement with ICE to remain in the country as long as they maintained clean records and checked in periodically with immigration officials.

Kaper-Dale said authorities deported Wangko and Timisela without notice to their families, who only received phone calls when the men were in Japan on the way to Indonesia. The pastor called on the immigration office to exercise discretion in how it responds to each case. Indonesia currently is ranked by Open Doors USA as the 46th most difficult country for Christians to live in, and advocates fear the men could face persecution in the country.

The United States is heightening priority deportations to include immigrants without any prior criminal record. The country saw a 37 percent increase in migrant arrests last month compared to the same time last year. New Jersey’s head of immigration enforcement, John Tsoukaris, said immigrant removals in the state are up by 30 percent.

U.S. Rep Frank Pallone, D-N.J., who introduced a bill to allow immigrants to reopen their asylum cases, said last week the removals are “morally reprehensible.”

“I have been inspired by the groundswell of support for these men, and we will continue to fight until our country has a just and humane immigration policy,” Pallone said in a statement to New Jersey Advance Media.

Graham Ashton Getty Images/Photo by Darrian Traynor

Terror in Australia

Australian security officials said they are treating a Monday incident in which a gunman killed one man and took a woman hostage as a lone wolf terror attack. The gunman, 29-year-old Yacqub Khayre, on Monday requested an escort in an apartment building in Brighton. Khayre shot the building caretaker and took the escort hostage. He then called the police and told them he had a hostage and would kill her if they intervened. The police shot and killed Khayre when he stormed out of the building and began to shoot at the officers, injuring three of them in the process.

Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for the attack. Police Commissioner Graham Ashton confirmed the incident was a terror attack, but said there were no signs Khayre had acted as part of a larger or ongoing plot. Australia’s Seven New Television said it received a call from Khayre, who said “this is for IS, this is for al-Qaeda,” before he hung up. Ashton said authorities also are investigating whether Khayre had requested the escort to ambush police officials.

Khayre, a Somali refugee, served prison sentences for arson and violent crimes and just received parole in November. A jury in 2010 also acquitted him of plotting a terror attack on an army base in Sydney.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull described the attack as shocking and cowardly: “It is a terrorist attack and it underlines the need for us to be constantly vigilant, never to be deterred, always vigilant in the face of Islamist terrorism.” —O.O.

Graham Ashton Getty Images/Photo by Darrian Traynor

Denmark nixes blasphemy law

Danish lawmakers voted to repeal the nation’s blasphemy law last week after the ruling liberal party Venstre announced it had switched positions and supported the change.

In spite of previous debates over repealing it, the law remained in place until a recent prosecution over Quran burning made international news. Authorities charged 42-year-old John Salvesen with blasphemy for burning the book in 2015 and sharing a video of it on Facebook.

“I used my democratic right: freedom of speech,” Salvesen said. Prosecutors canceled the June 7 trial after parliament’s action.

Academics and human rights activists from many countries signed a petition in May calling the law “incompatible with both freedom of expression and equality before the law.”

Despite the repeal, other Danish statutes related to racism still make it illegal to mock people for their religion, according to Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, the same publication that printed cartoons in 2005 depicting Muhammad as a terrorist. The publication infuriated Muslims, and protests, riots, and attacks in Europe followed.

Before the repeal, Denmark was the only Scandinavian country with a blasphemy law, although the last conviction under it was in 1946. Six other European countries still have blasphemy laws. Pew Research found in 2014 that one in four nations criminalizes apostasy or blasphemy. —Julia A. Seymour

Philippine casino attack not terror-related

Philippine police on Sunday said the casino attacker who suffocated 37 people in a fire Friday was a heavily indebted gambler, ending claims the attack was terror-related.

Authorities identified the gunman as Jessie Carlos, a father of three who owed more than $80,000. Carlos on Friday killed people in a casino at the Manila Resorts World complex when he set gambling tables on fire. He fled to a hotel within the complex and set himself on fire in one of the rooms. Authorities found gambling chips worth $2 million in the hotel’s toilet. ISIS initially claimed responsibility for the attack.

Manila police chief Oscar Albayalde said Carlos had sold some property to support his gambling habit. His family asked casinos in the capital to ban him from entering starting April 3. Carlos’ family apologized for the attack during the Sunday press conference. “The message of what happened to my son is people should not get hooked on gambling so their families won’t get destroyed,” Carlos’ mother said. —O.O.

U.S. warns staff in Egypt to stay in Cairo

The U.S. State Department has cautioned its diplomats in Egypt’s capital, Cairo, not to visit religious sites outside the city. The U.S. embassy posted the message on its website and called on its staff to “take prudent steps” to ensure their safety because terror attacks in the country have targeted the country’s Christian community. The message comes after persistent attacks against the country’s Coptic Christians. In the latest incident, gunmen attacked a bus of travelers and killed at least 29 of them. “Incidents have occurred in both urban and isolated settings,” the report said. “Additional attacks may be possible.” —O.O.

Qatar’s row with other Gulf nations

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the ongoing rift between Qatar and other Gulf Arab nations is unlikely to affect the collaborative battle against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and several other nations have accused Qatar of supporting terrorism. The country’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamid Al Thani expressed support for Iran and Israel in a report the country has now branded as fake news. Regional countries took drastic actions such as cutting off air, sea, and land traffic with Qatar and pulling out their diplomatic missions from the country. The nations also expelled Qatar from a Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen. Tillerson encouraged the Gulf nations to sit down and address their differences but said the dispute would not affect the countries’ war against terrorism. “I think what we’re witnessing is a growing list of disbelief in the countries for some time, and they’ve bubbled up to take action in order to have those differences addressed,” Tillerson said. —O.O.