Judge orders Iraqi detainees be released before Christmas

DETROIT — A federal judge in Detroit on Tuesday ordered the release of all Iraqi immigrants detained whom the U.S. wants to deport, a decision hailed by immigrant advocates as a victory.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith said “the law is clear that the Federal Government cannot indefinitely detain foreign nationals while it seeks to repatriate them, when there is no significant likelihood of repatriation in the reasonably foreseeable future. This principle emanates from our Constitution's core value of rejecting arbitrary restraints on individual liberty.”

With a deadline of five days before Christmas, the government has to release about 110 Iraqi immigrants in prison, according to the ruling. Many of the Iraqi detainees are Christian and so being released in time for the holidays after being separated from their families is significant, advocates say.

“This is a huge win, a really big deal for us,” said Nadine Kalasho, an attorney with Code Legal Aid helped file a lawsuit last year against the U.S. government by the ACLU and others opposing the Iraqi detentions. “The families have been suffering . ... Being behind bars has taken a huge toll.”

Last year in June, federal immigration agents swept across Michigan and arrested many Iraqi immigrants with criminal records, some of them for minor crimes like marijuana possession decades ago. Others had more serious crimes such as murder. The U.S. wanted to deport the Iraqis, saying it had reached an agreement with Iraq's government to send them back to Iraq. The ACLU maintains there is no such agreement.

The U.S. wanted to deport about 1,400 Iraqi immigrants with criminal records, saying they pose threats to the security of the U.S. and also already had final orders of deportation issued by immigration authorities. The ACLU and others then filed a lawsuit against the U.S. seeking halt their deportation, and free them.