Kadhim has earned asylum

I AM SECOND-generation Panamanian on my father’s side and only a few generations of German and Russian immigrants on my mother’s side.

I am a United States Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam 1968. I thought the reasons for military duty was to protect our Constitution and our values, with open arms to protect those fleeing wars and oppression with a well-founded fear for their lives.

How shameful that our Department of Homeland Security would target Muslims and Middle East refugees. It appears to be a form of retaliation for failing to win in the courts enforcement of President Trump’s Muslim ban. So rather than abandoning a failed and unpopular ban that had all the markings as a racist and xenophobic policy, they sic Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a(n) ... Iraqi father of four who is married to an American-born U.S. citizen.

Kadhim Mohammed was tortured before ever coming to the United States, he has lived in the U.S. for 26 years and trained our soldiers headed to Iraq while working for a military base in San Diego. Because of his work with our military, he would be targeted for assassination if deported back to Iraq.

Were we not told we went to war with Iraq to liberate the Iraqis from just such practices of discrimination, torture and oppression, from a ruthless and heartless dictator? What kind of monsters have we become when we are willing to deport such a man as Kadhim to his certain death, leaving his wife a widow and his children fatherless?

Kadhim should be granted asylum, not deportation, citizenship for the years he has lived in the U.S. and for the services he has provided to our military.

Let us not become the monsters we profess to battle. DANIEL SHEA Board of Directors,Veterans For Peace Portland, Ore.