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Indra Sihotang was desperate to stay in New York. Minutes from being deported to Indonesia, the 52-year-old father clung to a chair bolted to the floor at Kennedy International Airport, struggling against four immigration officers trying to tear him away.

By the end of the confrontation, his face was bloody and bruised. But neither Mr. Sihotang, nor another immigrant in the officers’ custody who watched the incident unfold, was allowed onto the plane after the pilot raised security concerns.

“I kept trying to explain to them that the conditions in my country are very bad now,” Mr. Sihotang said. “I was telling them, ‘I don’t want to die there.’”

Mr. Sihotang had lost his fight to receive asylum in the United States a decade ago, a decision he did not appeal after he and thousands like him were granted a temporary reprieve from deportation by the Obama administration. Days after assuming office, President Trump revoked that protection, making Mr. Sihotang and thousands of other asylum seekers suddenly eligible for deportation, though many did not realize it.