ACLU says court misled on Iraqis

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lied to a federal judge to justify keeping more than 100 Iraqi nationals behind bars for more than a year as the government sought to deport them and about 1,300 other Iraqis who live in the U.S., the American Civil Liberties Union said.

The people, many of whom came to the U.S. as children, started families in the country and have been working in the U.S. for decades, should be immediately freed pending the outcome of their immigration cases because the deportation efforts will likely fail, the ACLU said Wednesday in a court filing in Detroit.

The rights group said Immigration and Customs Enforcement misled the court by signaling that Iraq was prepared to “quickly and easily” repatriate the detainees. In fact, the ACLU says, Iraq won’t accept deportees who don’t want to return — and can refuse to admit those who arrive at Baghdad international airport. That’s why the roughly 1,400 Iraqis have remained in the U.S. for years despite attempts by earlier administrations to remove them.

The ACLU also asked U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith, who last year spared the Iraqis from immediate deportation, to unseal evidence that the rights group says will prove Immigration and Customs Enforcement made false statements to the court. The rights group said it had to fight in court to gain access to the government documents that proved the immigration agency was lying.

After President Donald Trump took office, about 1,400 Iraqis who were subject to orders of removal under earlier administrations were earmarked for deportation, and hundreds were arrested.

In June, Goldsmith ordered the Trump administration to stop immigration authorities from using coercion, intimidation or misinformation to pressure the jailed Iraqis into agreeing to be deported. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been using threats and misinformation to try to convince the Iraqis — who have limited access to lawyers — that it’s a crime to say they wish to keep fighting to stay in the U.S., the ACLU has said.