Gov. Phil Murphy on Thursday rushed to a church that has provided sanctuary for immigrants after two Indonesians were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a third sought refuge in the church.

Gunawan Liem, of Franklin Park, and Roby Sanger, of Metuchen, were detained as they dropped their kids off at school Thursday morning, said Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale of the Reformed Church of Highland Park.

At the church, which has been housing immigrants for years, the governor met with others who have taken up sanctuary there, including one who avoided detention by not answering his door.

"We obviously have to put our heads together and figure this out," Murphy told a crowd gathered at the church.

"It's not our country, it's not our values, it's not the country you came to to escape persecution," he later said.

Kaper-Dale said everybody in the community was terrified of the U.S. immigration policy.

"We can't believe ICE would make the choice to destroy communities in that way," he said. "We're here to highlight the injustice of the Donald Trump administration, which is the most horrific administration anyone could imagine."

Gov. Murphy greets Yohanes Tasik, center, a resident of Avenel for the past 29 years who has been living in the Reformed Church of Highland Park for the last two weeks since he has been afraid of being deported. To the left is Harry Pangemanan who Thursday morning avoided being picked up by ICE. (Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Kaper-Dale, who ran for governor as a Green Party candidate last year, has said he is trying to save at-risk Indonesian refugees who fled their country to escape religious persecution more than a decade ago.

Immigration officials late Thursday confirmed the arrests.

"During a targeted enforcement operation today, ICE arrested two foreign nationals in Franklin Park and Metuchen," ICE spokesman Emilio Dabul said. "These individuals have an order of removal from the United States issued by an immigration judge and upheld by the Board of Immigration Appeals."

Dabul said all enforcement actions "are a part of routine, daily targeted operations conducted by ICE around the country targeting criminal aliens and other immigration violators who are in the U.S. in violation of federal law," adding that ICE "does not target individuals based on religion, ethnicity, gender or race. Any suggestion to the contrary is patently false."

Kaper-Dale said he had brought Harry Pangemanan back to the church, which is four blocks from Pangemanan's home, after the Indonesian immigrant didn't answer knocks on his door from ICE officers.

Pangemanan was getting ready to take his 15-year-old daughter to school, but instead called Kaper-Dale.

Posted by Kaper-Dale For Governor on Thursday, January 25, 2018

Pangemanan joined two other Indonesian man at the church, one who has been there for 14 days, another for 110 days.

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr., who was also at the church, said the Indonesians who were targeted had cooperated with federal officials since they came to the United States.

"They are valuable members of their community and there is absolutely no reason for ICE to prioritize their detainment," said Pallone, D-6th Dist.

Pangemanan, a Christian, left Makassar, Indonesia, in 1993 at age 21 to flee religious persecution, he said. He met his Indonesian wife in America, who also escaped from religious persecution in 1998 and is also not here legally. Together, the pair have two children, 11 and 15, who were born in America.

"I came for a better life ... but this (is) on my mind every single day. It's on my kid's minds every single day," he said.

Harry Pangemanan talks about avoiding ICE earlier this morning as they were trying to take him into custody. He is now taking sanctuary in the church. Gov. Murphy and Congressman Pallone attend a meeting at The Reformed Church of Highland Park in reaction to ICE raids Thursday morning. (Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

His family plans on staying in the church as the community remains on high-alert of more ICE raids.

The two men detained Thursday and Pangemanan had one-year stays of removal -- one was supposed to check in with immigration officials on Tuesday, another on Feb. 14 and one in March.

"They had no reason to believe ICE would perform a preemptive attack," Kaper-Dale said.

Both men taken from their homes Thursday are being detained at the Essex County jail, according to Kaper-Dale.

Last year, several other Indonesian Christians who were detained by ICE were deported, according to Kaper-Dale. The men were ethnic Chinese Christians and said they fled Indonesia after they were persecuted for their faith.

In May, Arino Massie was deported, leaving behind his wife and a 13-year-old U.S. citizen son who was in school when his father boarded a plane. Saul Timisela and Rovani Wangko were sent back to Indonesia in June after their requests to stay in the country were denied. A fourth man was also taken into custody and later deported.

Yohanes Tasik, left, and Arthur Jemmy are also seeking sanctuary in the church. (Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

All four had applied for asylum more than 10 years ago but missed the deadline for eligibility and were ordered deported. The group worked out an agreement with ICE to stay in the country so long as long as they periodically checked in. But when the four reported in May, they were detained, according to Kaper-Dale.

Murphy meets with Harry Pangemanan, who is claiming sanctuary from ICE https://t.co/t2Q3Ul2Wzp — Steph Solis (@stephmsolis) January 25, 2018

Meanwhile, New Jersey will join more than a dozen other states in a lawsuit that challenges President Donald Trump over his decision to end a program that allowed undocumented people brought to the U.S. as children to avoid deportation.

The move was expected after Murphy, a Democrat, promised during his campaign to join the fight against Trump, a Republican, after he ended the Obama administration era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Murphy made the announcement in Trenton on Wednesday along with the state's attorney general, Gurbir Grewal, who didn't give an exact date when the state would join the lawsuit. Rather, his office will wait for "the most opportune time to file the papers."

NJ Advance Media staff writers Jeff Goldman and Ted Sherman contributed to this report.